Salvador Mazza was born in Rauch, Buenos Aires, Argentina. His father was Francisco Mazza and his mother was Josefa Alfise who were Italians immigrants from Palermo. He studied at the Buenos Aires National High School ( Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires). Then he entered the Faculty of Medicine (facultad de Medicina) in 1903 where he outstood by his work in the Student Center(centro de estudiantes). For example, he edited some magazines in which he published some researches. He graduated in 1910. in that year he was named bacteriologist of the National Department of Hygiene. In 1914, he married to Clorinda Brigida Razori who was his inseparable mate and collaborator throughout all his life.

During his professional career he was part of the National Department of Hygiene, the former name of what we know today as Ministry of Health, and he organized a lazaretto in Martin García island in order to investigate the presence of healthy carriers of cholera germs in immigrants from Europe, Middle and Far Fast. After that he substituted Carlos Mabran as professor of bacteriology in the B.A.U. He was in charge of the Central Laboratory (Laboratorio Central) of the Buenos Aires Clinic Hospital. During the decade of 1920 Mazza traveled few times to Europe and to the Pasteur Institute in Argelia where he met Charles Nicolle, future Nobel Prize in Medicine by his bacteriological researches about the Exantematic Tifus. They became very good friends. Mazza convinced Nicolle to stay in the country's rural areas and study the regional pathology. In this way, in 1926 Mazza created the Jujuy's Scientific Society (Sociedad Cientifica de Jujuy) which its first president was the famous malarialogist Guillermo Paterson who was born in England, doctor in the "Ingenio la Esperanza" and that would be with Mazza until his death. Between 1926 and 1927, society branches are created in Salta, Tucuman, Catamarca, Santiago del Estero, La Rioja and Corrientes. In 1928, supported by Dr. José Arce it s officially created the "Mision de Estudios de Patologia Regional Argentina" (MEPRA) universitary organism depending on the Surgical Clinic Institute of the Faculty of Medicine of the Buenos Aires University, located in Jujuy in a building built specifically for that purpose and that was donated.

After his death, MEPRA was managed by Miguel E Jörg (1946), Alberto Manso Soto (1946-1955), Flavio L. Niño (1955) and Guido A Loretti until it is closing in May 16th ,1959.

Sources of Information

• Historia de la Enfermedad de Chagas
  Federacion Argentina de Cardiologia
  Foro de Educación Continua en Cardiologia
  http://www.fac.org.ar/fec/chagas/fatala/historia.htm

• Rodríguez Leirado, Pablo.
  El Mal de Chagas en Argentina y América Latina: Otro ladrillo para la cárcel de Cristal
  Revista Digital Sitio al Margen
  http://www.almargen.com.ar/sitio/seccion/actualidad/chagas/

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