[For the sacrifice of isolation: leprosy and philanthropy in Argentina and Brazil, 1930-1946].

Patronato de Leprosos, in Argentina, and Federação das Sociedades de Assistência aos Lázaros e Defesa Contra a Lepra, in Brazil, were created as institutions designed to help people with leprosy and their families. Headed by women from the ruling classes, these entities took very similar actions, despite the different national contexts in which they operated, both supplementing leprosy healthcare policies in their respective countries. This article aims to demonstrate the similarities in the strategies adopted by both philanthropic institutions, which, in the 1930s and 1940s, acted in harmony with the physicians who supported compulsory isolation.