BIOLOGY ON POSTAGE STAMPS
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BIOLOGY ON POSTAGE STAMPS |
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- - Scientists-Biologists on Stamps
Salvador Mazza
The same group of scientists that had listened to Carlos Chagas evidence on
this disease denied its existence for many years.
Salvador Mazza was the man who represented a real milestone in the study of the
Chagas disease.
He was born in Rauch (Province of Buenos Aires) in 1886. In 1910, he was awarded
a degree in Medicine and specialized in Bacteriology. He was a Member of the
National Hygiene Department and set up a quarantine station on Martín García
Island in order to investigate healthy cholera carriers coming from Europe and
the Middle East. He also held the Chair of Bacteriology at the National
University of Buenos Aires and headed the Laboratory of the Hospital de Clínicas
of Buenos Aires. He modified the antiophidic vaccine and traveled to Europe and
Africa to study typhus.
In 1926, he founded the Scientific Society of Jujuy, which afterwards opened
delegations in a number of northern provinces. In 1928, he created Misión de
Estudios Regional Argentina (MEPRA Regional Studies Taskforce of Argentina).
He thus conducted numerous studies to verify the presence of the Chagas disease
in the northern region. First, in 1926, he discovered a dog infected with
T-cruzi and one year later he reported the first severe case known in the
country.
In the 30s, MEPRA fostered the study of this pathology. He traveled incessantly
in quest of new cases. He soon became widely acknowledged by his peers, in
contrast with Carlos Chagas.
In 1939, the core subject matter of the VI National Medical Congress was the
American Trypanosomiasis.
Together with Miguel Jörg, in 1940, he identified three clinical stages of this
disease.
In 1946, he traveled to Mexico as a keynote speaker at the Update Seminar on the
Chagas Disease. He died in Monterrey.
Mazza was an untiring researcher, who believed that the best way to validate
scientific knowledge was through the written language. He published over 300
papers, one of which was particularly relevant for the citizens of San Luis
titled Verification of Severe Manifestations of the Chagas Disease in the
Province of San Luis, published in 1938 by an Argentine journal called Misión de
Estudios de Patología Regional Argentina, issue 34, p.p. 3-7, 1938. This work
had been prepared jointly with the Germinal brothers and Redento Basso.
- Links
: 26.07.2007 : 20.06.2008, 21.02.2009