Salvador Mazza
Encyclopedia
Salvador Mazza was a noted Argentine physician and epidemiologist, best known for his strides in helping control American trypanosomiasisan endemic disease among the rural, poor majority of early 20th century South America
.
, a small pampas town, to Francesco Mazza and Giuseppa Alfise (both immigrants from Sicily
), in 1886. A precocious student, Mazza was accepted into the prestigious, public college preparatory school, the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires
, at age 10. Upon graduation he applied for enlistment in the Argentine Naval Academy
; but was rejected on medical grounds. He enrolled, instead, at the University of Buenos Aires
(UBA) School of Medicine, graduating in 1903.
During his graduate studies, he accepted a post as Health Inspector for the then-rural Province of Buenos Aires, where he focused on disease prevention and vaccination
. Following his 1903 graduation, he specialized in microbiology
and pathology
. He organized and briefly directed the quarantine facility
for cholera
-stricken seafarers and immigrants on Martín García Island, and then performed his medical residency in a number of European hospitals before earning his degree of Doctor of Medicine
and returning to Argentina, in 1910. He then met a fellow Italian Argentine
, Clorinda Brígida Razori, and they married in 1914 - creating a lasting professional partnership, as well as marriage.
The onset of World War I
returned Mazza to Europe
, where he was commissioned in 1916 by the Argentine Army
to study the crisis of infectious disease in the German
and Austro-Hungarian Empires. There, he befriended a well-known Brazil
ian epidemiologist, Carlos Chagas
, who in 1909 had discovered American trypanosomiasis. Mazza was named Laboratories Director of the Clinical Hospital and Dean of the Bacteriology
Course at the UBA, in 1920. Traveling to France
in 1923, he and his wife accepted noted bacteriologist Charles Nicolle
's invitation to the Pasteur Institute
's Algiers
branch, where they studied Dr. Nicolle's methods in the treatment of typhus
(Nicolle was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his efforts). Returning to Argentina in 1925, Mazza was given a prominent post in the UBA' Surgical Cinic and shortly afterwards invited Nicolle to Buenos Aires, where they discussed the need for more vigorous action against the contagious diseases affecting the country's poor.
, for the establishment of a medical mission in Argentina's underdeveloped north. The Regional Pathologies Study Mission (MEPRA) was established in then-feudal Jujuy Province
, in February 1926. Installed in a railway car, Mazza laboratory undertook studies on trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis
, among other diseases. Publishing regular reports, the mobile lab traveled from village to village to not only inform the then-mostly illiterate population of the nature of their common diseases; but also to help control the known disease vector triatoma infestans
, a beetle known locally as the vinchuca. The death of a symptomatic dog
in 1926 ultimately led to Mazza's confirmation of the existence of the causal pathogen,trypanosoma cruzi
, in Argentina, in 1927.
Mazza established Scientific Societies in seven northern provinces in 1926-27 to help coordinate his studies and diffuse information. He was assisted by, among others, Dr. Guillermo Paterson, an English Argentine epidemiologist known for his work on malaria
. His efforts, however, encountered indifference and, then, resistance from the area's landed gentry, who generally saw squalor and contagious disease as an externality, and feared that Mazza's efforts might trigger a peasant revolt. His campaign to incinerate rural thatched roofs, a habitat for vinchucas, was particularly controversial. A fascist, 1930 coup d'état
against the aging President Hipólito Yrigoyen
, moreover, led to the elimination of funding for the MEPRA the following year, after which Mazza maintained the facility with donations and his own funds. His efforts forced the South American medical community to accept the validity of trypanosomiasis (making it the special topic of the prestigious VI National Congress of Medicine, in 1939), and yieded the first detailed description of the dynamic between living conditions, trypanosomiasis, and its insect vector.
A letter in 1942 to the renowned Scottish scientist, Dr. Alexander Fleming
, led to his cooperation in the 1943 establishment of the first Argentine penicillin
manufacturer - despite ongoing government refusal of support. The struggling MEPRA had, by 1944, published 551 articles in peer-reviewed journals (including 482 by Mazza, himself). He was then invited to the First International Brucellosis
Congress, in Monterrey, Mexico, in November 1946.
On November 9, 1946, Dr. Salvador Mazza suffered a sudden, severe attack of hypotension
, which resulted in his death at age 60. His death was the likely result of trypanosomiasis, the disease he had largely succeeded in controlling in Argentina.
MEPRA remained in operation until persistent budget cuts forced the closure of its last laboratory, a two-room facility in the La Paternal section of Buenos Aires, in 1959. The story was dramatized for the Argentine cinema in 1995 by Juan Bautista Stagnaro's Casas de fuego ("Houses of Fire"), in which the renowned epidemiologist was portrayed by Miguel Ángel Solá
.
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
.
Early career
Mazza was born in RauchRauch, Buenos Aires
Rauch is a town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the head town of the Rauch Partido....
, a small pampas town, to Francesco Mazza and Giuseppa Alfise (both immigrants from Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
), in 1886. A precocious student, Mazza was accepted into the prestigious, public college preparatory school, the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires
Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires
Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires is a public high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the tradition of the European gymnasium it provides a free education that includes classical languages such as Latin and Greek. The school is one of the most prestigious in Argentina...
, at age 10. Upon graduation he applied for enlistment in the Argentine Naval Academy
Argentine Navy
The Navy of the Argentine Republic or Armada of the Argentine Republic is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Army and the Air Force....
; but was rejected on medical grounds. He enrolled, instead, at the University of Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...
(UBA) School of Medicine, graduating in 1903.
During his graduate studies, he accepted a post as Health Inspector for the then-rural Province of Buenos Aires, where he focused on disease prevention and vaccination
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
. Following his 1903 graduation, he specialized in microbiology
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...
and pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
. He organized and briefly directed the quarantine facility
Lazaretto
A lazaretto or lazaret is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. Until 1908, lazarets were also used for disinfecting postal items, usually by fumigation...
for cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
-stricken seafarers and immigrants on Martín García Island, and then performed his medical residency in a number of European hospitals before earning his degree of Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
and returning to Argentina, in 1910. He then met a fellow Italian Argentine
Italian Argentine
An Italian Argentine is a person born in Argentina of Italian ancestry. It is estimated up to 25 million Argentines have some degree of Italian descent...
, Clorinda Brígida Razori, and they married in 1914 - creating a lasting professional partnership, as well as marriage.
The onset of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
returned Mazza to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where he was commissioned in 1916 by the Argentine Army
Argentine Army
The Argentine Army is the land armed force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of the country.- History :...
to study the crisis of infectious disease in the German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and Austro-Hungarian Empires. There, he befriended a well-known Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian epidemiologist, Carlos Chagas
Carlos Chagas
Carlos Justiniano Ribeiro Chagas, or Carlos Chagas , was a Brazilian sanitary physician, scientist and bacteriologist who worked as a clinician and researcher. He discovered Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis in 1909, while working at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro...
, who in 1909 had discovered American trypanosomiasis. Mazza was named Laboratories Director of the Clinical Hospital and Dean of the Bacteriology
Bacteriology
Bacteriology is the study of bacteria. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classification, and characterization of bacterial species...
Course at the UBA, in 1920. Traveling to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1923, he and his wife accepted noted bacteriologist Charles Nicolle
Charles Nicolle
Charles Jules Henry Nicolle was a French bacteriologist who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his identification of lice as the transmitter of epidemic typhus.- Biography :...
's invitation to the Pasteur Institute
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...
's Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
branch, where they studied Dr. Nicolle's methods in the treatment of typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
(Nicolle was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his efforts). Returning to Argentina in 1925, Mazza was given a prominent post in the UBA' Surgical Cinic and shortly afterwards invited Nicolle to Buenos Aires, where they discussed the need for more vigorous action against the contagious diseases affecting the country's poor.
Struggle against disease and indifference
These discussions resulted in support from the school's Dean of Anatomy, Dr. José ArceJosé Arce
José Arce was an Argentine physician, politician and diplomat. He held the position of the President of the United Nations General Assembly during the Second special session - between 16 April 1948 and 21 September 1948....
, for the establishment of a medical mission in Argentina's underdeveloped north. The Regional Pathologies Study Mission (MEPRA) was established in then-feudal Jujuy Province
Jujuy Province
Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.-History:...
, in February 1926. Installed in a railway car, Mazza laboratory undertook studies on trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites that belong to the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the bite of certain species of sand fly...
, among other diseases. Publishing regular reports, the mobile lab traveled from village to village to not only inform the then-mostly illiterate population of the nature of their common diseases; but also to help control the known disease vector triatoma infestans
Triatoma infestans
Triatoma infestans, commonly called vinchuca and also known as "barber bug", is a blood-sucking bug and the most important vector of Trypanosoma cruzi which can lead to Chagas disease...
, a beetle known locally as the vinchuca. The death of a symptomatic dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
in 1926 ultimately led to Mazza's confirmation of the existence of the causal pathogen,trypanosoma cruzi
Trypanosoma cruzi
Trypanosoma cruzi is a species of parasitic euglenoid trypanosomes. This species causes the trypanosomiasis diseases in humans and animals in America...
, in Argentina, in 1927.
Mazza established Scientific Societies in seven northern provinces in 1926-27 to help coordinate his studies and diffuse information. He was assisted by, among others, Dr. Guillermo Paterson, an English Argentine epidemiologist known for his work on malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
. His efforts, however, encountered indifference and, then, resistance from the area's landed gentry, who generally saw squalor and contagious disease as an externality, and feared that Mazza's efforts might trigger a peasant revolt. His campaign to incinerate rural thatched roofs, a habitat for vinchucas, was particularly controversial. A fascist, 1930 coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
against the aging President Hipólito Yrigoyen
Hipólito Yrigoyen
Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Irigoyen Alem was twice President of Argentina . His activism became the prime impetus behind the obtainment of universal suffrage in Argentina in 1912...
, moreover, led to the elimination of funding for the MEPRA the following year, after which Mazza maintained the facility with donations and his own funds. His efforts forced the South American medical community to accept the validity of trypanosomiasis (making it the special topic of the prestigious VI National Congress of Medicine, in 1939), and yieded the first detailed description of the dynamic between living conditions, trypanosomiasis, and its insect vector.
A letter in 1942 to the renowned Scottish scientist, Dr. Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...
, led to his cooperation in the 1943 establishment of the first Argentine penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
manufacturer - despite ongoing government refusal of support. The struggling MEPRA had, by 1944, published 551 articles in peer-reviewed journals (including 482 by Mazza, himself). He was then invited to the First International Brucellosis
Brucellosis
Brucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions...
Congress, in Monterrey, Mexico, in November 1946.
On November 9, 1946, Dr. Salvador Mazza suffered a sudden, severe attack of hypotension
Hypotension
In physiology and medicine, hypotension is abnormally low blood pressure, especially in the arteries of the systemic circulation. It is best understood as a physiologic state, rather than a disease. It is often associated with shock, though not necessarily indicative of it. Hypotension is the...
, which resulted in his death at age 60. His death was the likely result of trypanosomiasis, the disease he had largely succeeded in controlling in Argentina.
MEPRA remained in operation until persistent budget cuts forced the closure of its last laboratory, a two-room facility in the La Paternal section of Buenos Aires, in 1959. The story was dramatized for the Argentine cinema in 1995 by Juan Bautista Stagnaro's Casas de fuego ("Houses of Fire"), in which the renowned epidemiologist was portrayed by Miguel Ángel Solá
Miguel Ángel Solá
Miguel Ángel Solá is a prolific Argentine actor who has made over 60 film appearances in film and TV in Argentina since 1973....
.