Brazilian scientist (Oliveira 9/7/1878 - Rio de Janeiro 11/8/1934)
Son of farmers, he was born in Oliveira, Minas Gerais. He starts studying in São João del Rei, finishing high school in Ouro Preto. He received a doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro (1903). While still an academic, he joined the Instituto Bacteriológico Osvaldo Cruz (1903), of which he became director (1917-1934).
From an early age, he revealed his skills as a researcher and sanitarist. Ahead of the prophylactic campaign, he eradicated malaria in the city of Santos (1905). Thanks to his home-based theory of malaria transmission, formulated at the time of this campaign, he projected his name in the country's scientific circles. His works were later universally accepted.
He was head of the study commission on malaria prophylaxis in Minas Gerais (1907). In 1909 he completed research aimed at eliminating trypanosomiasis, later known as Chagas disease. He identified the causative agent of this disease, which he named Trypanosoma cruzi, in honor of Osvaldo Cruz. His work covers all aspects of the disease: pathological anatomy, epidemiology, etiology, clinical forms, means of transmission, pathogenesis, prophylaxis and symptomatology.
A year after its discovery, it received recognition from international scientific circles. A special place was created for him at the National Academy of Medicine (1910).
The next two years, Carlos Chagas spent them traveling through the Amazon valley, raising an epidemiological chart of the region. In 1912 an international jury awarded him the Schaudinn Prize, awarded to the best study in protozoology and microbiology.
Another of his work was leading the campaign against the "Spanish" flu epidemic in Rio de Janeiro (1918). Director of Public Health (1919), he improved and modernized the sanitary services in the then capital of the republic. Professor of Tropical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro (1925). Also in 1925, the University of Hamburg awarded him the Kummel Prize (gold medal). He received the titles of honorary magister causa from the Universities of Paris and Harvard. He belonged to the medical academies of New York (1926), Paris (1930) and Lima (1922).
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From his extensive published work, the following stand out: Hematological studies of malaria (1902), Hematology of malaria (1903), Antimalarial prophylaxis (1907), New species of Taeniorynchus (1908), Morbid new species of man produced by a trypanosome (1909), Classification and description of several species of anophelines and culicides, Description of a new human disease transmitted by the "barber" (Triatoma megistus) (1912), Pathogenesis of American trypanosomiasis (in collaboration with Eurico Vilela) (1929), Evolutionary aspects of Trypanosoma cruzi no transmitter (1929).
Biography taken from Cláudio Azevedo's page dedicated to Carlos Chagas.
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
Order C - Biography - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SCHOOL, Team Brazil. "Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano da Chagas"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/carlos-ribeiro-justiniano-da-chagas.htm. Accessed on July 27, 2021.