Evandro Serafim Lobo Chagas (August 10, 1905 – November 8, 1940) the eldest son of Carlos Chagas (1879-1934), noted physician and scientist who discovered

Chagas disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical parasitic disease caused by ''Trypanosoma cruzi''. It is spread mostly by insects in the subfamily ''Triatominae'', known as "kissing bugs". The symptoms change over the cou ...

, and brother of

Carlos Chagas Filho Carlos Chagas Filho (September 10, 1910 – February 16, 2000) was a Brazilian physician, biologist and scientist active in the field of neuroscience. He was internationally renowned for his investigations on the neural mechanisms underlying ...

(1910-2000), also a noted physician and scientist who was president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In 1926 Evandro Chagas got diploma from the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro and made residence at Hospital São Francisco de Assis and at Hospital Oswaldo Cruz. At the same time, he attended the specialization course in microbiology at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. In 1930 he became professor at Clinical Infectious and Tropical Diseases (in Portuguese: Clínica de Doenças Tropicais e Infecciosas) at the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro, whose discipline was taught by his father, Carlos Chagas. To fill the vacancy, he defended as a thesis the cardiac form of American trypanosomiasis. Being one of the pioneers in the use of

electrocardiography Electrocardiography is the process of producing an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), a recording of the heart's electrical activity. It is an electrogram of the heart which is a graph of voltage versus time of the electrical activity of the hear ...

has made significant contributions on Chagas disease. He conducted studies on Yellow Fever, Malaria,

Hookworm Hookworms are intestinal, blood-feeding, parasitic roundworms that cause types of infection known as helminthiases. Hookworm infection is found in many parts of the world, and is common in areas with poor access to adequate water, sanitation, an ...

, and especially about the

Leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most freq ...

, discovering the first human cases of the disease and conducting clinical and epidemiological investigations in several states in Brazil and in Argentina. In 1931 he held the position of Human Pathology Section (in Portuguese: Seção de Patologia Humana) of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz and, in 1935, represented the institution at the Ninth Meeting of the Argentine Society of Pathology North Regional, held in the city of Mendoza to honor the memory of Carlos Chagas, newly deceased. Upon returning from Argentina, he organized the service of Endemic Diseases Study, to coordinate a plan of medical and health research in several Brazilian states, promoting important research, especially on Malaria, Leishmaniasis and Chagas Disease. He also created, in 1936, the Institute of Experimental Pathology of North (in Portuguese: Instituto de Patologia Experimental do Norte), located in Belém, Pará state, Brazil it operated as a subsidiary of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; later it would bear his name,

Instituto Evandro Chagas The Evandro Chagas Institute (Portuguese ''Instituto Evandro Chagas'', or IEC) is a non-profit organization which promotes public health in Brazil named after Evandro Chagas. History In the 1940s fisherman Henrique Penna from the Rockefeller Found ...

(today one of the best known institutes on tropical medicine and virology in the world). Evandro Chagas died at an air crash in Rio de Janeiro on November 8, 1940, aged 35.

References

1905 births 1940 deaths Brazilian tropical physicians Chagas disease 20th-century Brazilian physicians Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Brazil Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1940 {{Brazil-scientist-stub