Carlos Justiniano Riveiro Chagas, was born in Oliveira to the west of Gerais Mines in July 9th , 1879. His grandfather was one of the most important landlords of the region. His father Jose Justiniano Chagas bought a coffee plantation and got married to Mariana Candida Chagas. When he was 4 years old and his mother was just 24 his father died. At the age of 7 he was sent to Tú Jesuit High School in the Sao Paulo state. In 1888, the abolishment of slavery was signed which was celebrated with noisy parades and as consequence many serious incidents. Carlos fled from his high school, worried about his mother who being moved by that, transferred him to San Juan del Rey school where a priest called Sacramentado was in charge of his education. This humanist, naturalist and poet priest sowed in him the interest in observing the nature, the habit of reading and the artistic interpretation. A solid relationship between teacher and students its started.

Having finished that learning period, Chagas moved to Oro Prieto where he entered the Minas Engineering School which was the higher goal for the rich boys of that colonial time in the old Villa Rica.

At the age of the 16, he survived a Beri-Beri attack and come back to Oliveira where his uncle Carlos Riveiro de Castro had just installed a new hospital and convinced him to abandon the engineering in order to start a career as a doctor using the argument that the country needed to resolve as fast as possible some very serious health problems to reach economy independence ( once it was described at the beginning of the century that Brazil was a "big Hospital "). Convinced by his uncle, he registered in the Medicine Faculty of Rio de Janeiro.

Despite that in those days the electricity was introduced, the dedication of the students was measured by the number of candles during a night spent studying; Carlos Chagas was classified as "2 candle student", he succeed as student not only by his ability to work but also by his intelligence and perseverance.

The Influence of Oswaldo Cruz in Carlos Chagas life.

By that time Oswaldo Cruz was a very outstanding person. He was an example of generosity and disinterestedness. He eradicated the yellow fever from the Brazilian harbors. Between the teacher -who was just 7 years older- and the student grew an excellent friendship. After working for several years in the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Oswaldo Cruz created in Manguinhos a model institute for the production of serum and vaccines; furthermore, in which some excellent researchers were made. He sent his disciples to France and Germany and he interchanged knowledge with European scientists that visited his institute like Prowazek, Giemsa, Hartman and others. In 1903 Cruz was nominated as the Brazilian Public Health principal. As principal he reformed; in a titanic work, the sanitary organization of his country.

Since the very beginning Chagas refused to work as a researcher in the Oswaldo Cruz Institute; instead he chose to work in a lower position in a hospital in Jurujuba, in which he also opened a private consulting room. The lack of money made him accept an after to work for Docas de Santos Company in the malaria prevention which seriously affected the workers. At 26, he carried out the first efficient antimalarial campaign in Brazil. Having finished his mission he came back to Rio where he had left his family. So , he began to work for the Oswaldo Cruz institute and studied the protozoa .

In 1908, Oswaldo Cruz assigned to Chagas a new antimalarical campaign related to the construction of the Brazilian Central, Railroad, this time in Lassance in Minas Gerais State.

Working in a railway car as laboratory, consulting room, and bedroom , he found the transmitter (trypanosoma Cruzi) and described the clinical aspects of the disease that within years would be known as Chagas disease.

The death of Carlos Chagas.

Carlos Chagas died when he was 55 as consequence of a hearth attack.

Chagas made his dream come true: help to improve the health conditions of his country. He made some writings that showed his deep motivation, for his professional life: " in these ferocious lands cover up by exotic vegetation with abundant fruits and wonderful flowers; in this opulent tropic nature the same creative energies that stimulate and strengthen the animal and vegetal life make that other destruction and death factors come up... that constantly attack the human body". He also wrote " beside the incomparable privileges there are some serious defects to fix, beside an exuberant life death constantly observes".

One year before his death, he said to some graduate doctors: "gentlemen, the hygienic practical applications and the tropical medicine have destroyed the prejudice of a terrible climate; the scientific method has conquered the tropics unhealthiness".

Source of Information

• Martínez-Palomo, Adolfo.
  Carlos Chagas, o la Fuerza de la Voluntad
  http://www.geocities.com/fdocch/chagas.htm

More Information

• The Chagas Disease
• Historical Review
      • Dr. Carlos Justiniano Riveiro Chagas (1879-1934)
      • Dr. Salvador Mazza (1886 -1946)
      • Dr. Mario Fatala Chabén (1936-1962)
      • Dr. Oswaldo Cruz (1872-1917)
• Medical Information
      • Epidemiology
      • Mortality
      • Race, sex and age.
      • Modes of Transmission
      • Pathophysiology
      • Clinical Information
      • Diagnosis
      • Other Medical Information
• Prevention and Control
• Frequently Asked Questions