The Evandro Chagas Institute ( Portuguese ''Instituto Evandro Chagas'', or IEC) is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

which promotes

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

named after

Evandro Chagas 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, and brother of Carlos Chagas Filho (1910-2000), also a noted physician an ...

History

In the 1940s fisherman Henrique Penna from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

reported that he had discovered cases of

leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by protozoal parasites of the Trypanosomatida genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of Phlebotominae, phlebotomine Sandfly, sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' an ...

in Brazil's countryside. The disease had not been previously detected in Brazil, and as a response,

Carlos Chagas Carlos Justiniano Ribeiro Chagas, or Carlos Chagas (; July 9, 1879 – November 8, 1934), was a Brazilian sanitary physician, scientist, and microbiologist who worked as a clinician and researcher. Most well known for the discovery of an eponym ...

of the

Oswaldo Cruz Institute The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Portuguese language, Portuguese ''Fundação Oswaldo Cruz'', also known as FIOCRUZ) is a scientific institution for research and development in biological sciences located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; it is considered ...

organized a commission leishmaniasis to be headed by his son Evandro Chagas. In 1938 this commission became the ''Instituto de Pathologia Experimental do Norte'', or Northern Institution for Experimental Pathology (IPEN), with a mission to study leishmaniasis and other regional diseases. In 1940 Evandro Chagas died in a plane crash. To acknowledge his work as a scientist, the government changed the name of the former IPEN into the Evandro Chagas Institute.

Research

The IEC organized local volunteers to participate in the iPrEx study, which was a

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

testing the efficacy of a drug used as a

pre-exposure prophylaxis Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is the use of medications to prevent the spread of disease in people who have not yet been exposed to a disease-causing agent. Vaccination is the most commonly used form of pre-exposure prophylaxis; other forms of ...

against HIV infection.

References

External links

Evandro Chagas Institute
Public health organizations Medical and health organisations based in Brazil {{med-org-stub