[2] Since January 2023, the Health Minister is Nísia Trindade, a researcher and former chairwoman of Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.

Despite this, the first Ministry with actions in the health area was created in 1930, during the government of Getúlio Vargas, under the name of Ministry of Education and Public Health (Brazilian Portuguese: Ministério dos Negócios da Educação e Saúde Pública).

In 1956, linked to this ministry, the National Department of Rural Endemics emerged, with the purpose of carrying out the services to combat endemic diseases in the country, such as malaria, leishmaniasis, chagas disease, plague, brucellosis, yellow fever, among others.

The Conference proposed the reorganization of medical and health care services and general alignments to determine a new division of attributions and responsibilities between the Federation's political and administrative levels, aiming, above all, at municipalization.

In the same year, the Superintendency of Public Health Campaigns (SUCAM) came under the direct subordination of the Minister of State, in order to allow him greater technical and administrative flexibility, elevating himself to a first-rate body.