Adolfo Lutz (6 October 1855 – 18 December 1940) was a Brazilian physician, father of tropical medicine and medical

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

in Brazil, and a pioneer

epidemiologist Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

and researcher in

infectious diseases An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable d ...

Life

Lutz was born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

, on December 18, 1855, son of Gustav Lutz († 1891) and Mathilde Oberteuffer, a family of Bern. He studied medicine in Switzerland, graduating in 1879 at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a compreh ...

. After graduation he went on to study experimental medicine techniques in London, England (where he studied with Joseph Lister, 1827–1912),

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, Germany, Vienna, Austria, Prague and Paris, France (where he studied with Louis Pasteur, 1822–1895). After his retirement in 1908, Dr. Adolfo Lutz moved to

, where he worked for 32 more years, until his death, on October 6, 1940, at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, created by another great Brazilian physician and epidemiologist, Oswaldo Cruz, and where he was a director of the Institute of Experimental Pathology. His daughter,

Bertha Lutz Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz (August 2, 1894 – September 16, 1976) was a Brazilian zoologist, politician, and diplomat. Lutz became a leading figure in both the Pan American feminist movement and human rights movement. She was instrumental in ...

(1894–1976), was a Brazilian zoologist, feminist and politician.

Work

Upon his return to Brazil in 1881, Lutz initially worked as a general clinician in the small city of Limeira, state of

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

for 6 years. Wishing to pursue medical research, he returned to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

, Germany once again, to work with Paul Gerson Unna (1850–1929), specializing in

and tropical medicine. As a result of his increasing fame, he was invited to the post of director of Kalihi Hospital, in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

, where he carried out research on

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria '' Mycobacterium leprae'' or '' Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve da ...

. Following this, he worked for a while in California, United States, before returning in 1892 to Brazil, attending an invitation from the government of the state of São Paulo to direct the Bacteriological Institute (later renamed in his honor to

Instituto Adolfo Lutz Instituto Adolfo Lutz is an analytical laboratory accredited as a National Laboratory of Public Health and Reference Laboratory Macroregional by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. It is based in São Paulo. It is the result of the combination of th ...

, still in existence today in the city of

. The city of Santos was undergoing a severe epidemic of

bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium ('' Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as ...

and Lutz went to work on it together with two other young physicians who would become luminaries of Brazilian medicine,

Emílio Ribas Emílio is a variant of the given names Emil, Emilio and Emilios, and may refer to: *Emílio Garrastazu Médici, Brazilian politician *Emílio Peixe, Brazilian footballer *Emílio Lino, Portuguese fencer *Emílio da Silva, footballer *Emílio Aug ...

and

Vital Brazil Vital Brazil Mineiro da Campanha, known as Vital Brazil (; April 28, 1865 – May 8, 1950), was a Brazilian physician, biomedical scientist and immunologist, known for the discovery of the polyvalent anti-ophidic serum used to treat bites of v ...

. Vital Brazil and Lutz became friends, and Lutz supported Vital Brazil's pioneering research on antivenoms for snake bites, contributing decisively for the creation of another institution in São Paulo, exclusively devoted to ophydian research, the Instituto Butantan. This serology institute hosted a plant for producing

vaccine A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. ...

s and antisera against several diseases, such as

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) ce ...

and plague. Lutz was the first Latin American scientist to study in depth and to confirm the mechanisms of transmission of

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

by the ''

Aedes aegypti ''Aedes aegypti'', the yellow fever mosquito, is a mosquito that can spread dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever, Mayaro and yellow fever viruses, and other disease agents. The mosquito can be recognized by black and white markings on its l ...

'' species of

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "lit ...

es, its natural reservoir and vector, as they had been discovered a few years before, by American physician Walter Reed. Lutz was also responsible for the identification of

South American blastomycosis South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

, which received his name (

Lutz-Splendore-de-Almeida disease Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM), also known as South American blastomycosis, is a fungal infection that can occur as a mouth and skin type, lymphangitic type, multi-organ involvement type (particularly lungs), or mixed type. If there are mouth ulce ...

). His dedication to public health was also paramount to the research and fight of several epidemics in many points in Brazil, such as cholera,

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over severa ...

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or deat ...

, ankylostomiasis,

schistosomiasis Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever, is a disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes. The urinary tract or the intestines may be infected. Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody ...

and leishmaniasis; which were then widely prevalent as tropical diseases in the state, due to the poor conditions of poverty, hygiene and ignorance about its transmission mechanisms. To this purpose, Lutz travelled widely across Brazil, visiting often the country's hinterland along the

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...

. Among his many accomplishments, Adolfo Lutz was also a pioneer researcher on medical

entomology Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and the therapeutic properties of Brazilian plants (

botany Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "bot ...

ethnopharmacology Ethnomedicine is a study or comparison of the traditional medicine based on bioactive compounds in plants and animals and practiced by various ethnic groups, especially those with little access to western medicines, e.g., indigenous peoples. T ...

and

phytotherapy Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies ...

). As a zoologist, he described several new species of

amphibians Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arb ...

and insects such as ''Anopheles lutzii'' (an Anopheles mosquito). Adolfo Lutz is honored in the scientific names of two species of Brazilian amphibians and reptiles: ''

Paratelmatobius lutzii ''Paratelmatobius lutzii'' is a species of frog in the family Leptodactylidae. The species is endemic to Brazil, where it is known from the Mantiqueira Mountains in the state of Minas Gerais. Its natural habitats are montane forests. It is only k ...

'', a frog; and ''

Bothrops lutzi ''Bothrops lutzi'', the Cerrado lancehead, is a species of venomous snake in the family Viperidae.:fr:Roy Wallace McDiarmid, McDiarmid RW, Jonathan A. Campbell, Campbell JA, Touré T (1999). ''Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geograph ...

'', a venomous snake. For his work on tropical diseases, Lutz received a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1938 Pittella JEH (2018). "The Nobel Prize database as an indicator of the internationalization of Brazilian science from 1901 to 1966 (in Portuguese)". História, Ciências, Saúde - Manguinhos, v. 25, n. 2, p. 569-590.

References

External links

Instituto Adolfo Lutz
Home page.
Sabrosky's Family Group Names in Diptera
References to Lutz work on Diptera. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lutz, Adolfo 1855 births 1940 deaths Brazilian people of Swiss-German descent Brazilian tropical physicians Brazilian entomologists People from Rio de Janeiro (city) University of Bern alumni 20th-century Brazilian physicians 19th-century Brazilian physicians

Life

Work

See also

References

External links