Daniel Alcides Carrión

Daniel Alcides Carrión García

Daniel Alcides Carrión García
Born August 12, 1857
Cerro de Pasco, Peru
Died October 5, 1885 (aged 28)
Lima, Peru
Nationality  Peru
Fields Medicine
Known for Carrion's disease, Oroya fever

Daniel Alcides Carrión García (August 12, 1857 October 5, 1885) was a Peruvian medical student after whom Carrion's disease is named.

Fatal experiment

He described the disease in the course of what proved to be a fatal experiment upon himself in 1885, in order to demonstrate definitively the cause of the illness. He was inoculated by close friends with blood from a wart between the eyes of a 14-year-old patient.[1] His aim was to prove a link between the acute blood stage of Oroya fever with that of the later chronic form of the disease Verruga Peruana typified by numerous red wart-like dermal nodules. Neither the cause nor mode of transmission of Oroya fever was then known and, furthermore, the relationship between the acute and chronic forms of the disease was not proven.

In 1938 Maxime Hans Kuczynski survived the similar experiment.

Burial site

Daniel Alcides Carrión is buried in a mausoleum on the premises of the National Hospital Dos de mayo in Lima.[2]

National Hero

On October 7, 1991, the Peruvian government announced a law (LeyNº 25342), declaring Daniel Alcides Carrión Garcia to be a "National Hero" (Spanish: Héroe Nacional).[3]

Named in his honour

See also

References

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