Henrique Beaurepaire Rohan de Aragão, Brazilian microbiologist and parasitologist (Niterói, Rio de Janeiro State 21 December 1879 – Rio de Janeiro 26 February 1956)
From French ancestry
Authored 171 papers
Considered as world authority on Myxomatosis and Mite Systematics
VIROLOGY/PARASITOLOGY
Individualized the etiologic agents of alastrim and chickenpox (1911)
Described smallpox, chickenpox and milkpox viroses
Demonstrated the existence of elementary bodies in chickenpox known as Aragão bodies (1911) and in rabbit myxoma (1912)
Discovered the etiologic agent of rabbit’s myxoma characterizing it as a virosis
Characterized the myxoma infection steps
Showed that rabbit’s myxoma could be transmitted mechanically by mosquito bites (1943)
With A. M. Costa Lima showed that yellow fever could be transmitted mosquito to mosquito
With Costa Lima performed studies about behavior of yellow fever virus in mosquito and its transmissibility requirements
Established the identity of African and American virus of yellow fever
First demonstrated experimentally the possibility of transmission of Leishmania brasiliensis by Phlebotomus sp. independently from Sergent studies in Algeria (1922)
ZOOLOGY
Discovered the exo-erythrocytary cycle of Haemosporidia when elucidated the life cycle of Haemoproteus columbae (1906)
Discovered the parthenogenetic reproduction of Ixodidae mites
DESCRIBED TAXA
Bacteria
Genus
Calymmatobacterium 1912 with Vianna
Species
Calymmatobacterium granulomatis 1912 with Vianna (etiologic agent of granuloma inguinale)
Protozoa
Valid Genera
Polytomella 1910
Copromastix 1916
Species
Amoeba diplomitotica 1909
Atoxoplasma adiei 1911
Atoxoplasma serini 1933
Atoxoplasma sporophilae 1911
Atoxoplasma sicalidis 1911
Copromastix prowazeki 1916
Entamoeba brasiliensis 1912
Hepatozoon alticorae 1911
Hepatozoon paroariae 1911
Hepatozoon rhamphocoeli 1911
Phytomonas françai 1927
Plasmodium diploglossi 1909 with Neiva
Plasmodium tropiduri 1909 with Neiva
Polytomella agilis 1909
Treponema minimum 1913 with Vianna
Acari
Family
Nuttallielidae
Species
Amblyomma agamum 1912
Amblyomma brasiliensis 1908
Amblyomma conspicuum 1912
Amblyomma lutzi 1908
Amblyomma mantiquirense 1908
Amblyomma minutum 1909
Amblyomma pacae 1911
Amblyomma parkeri 1952 with Fonseca
Amblyomma parvum 1908
Amblyomma pseudoconcolor 1908
Dermacentor triangulus 1935
Haemaphysalis kochi 1908
Haemaphysalis proxima 1909
Ixodes cooleyi 1951 with Fonseca
Ixodes didelphidis 1952 with Fonseca
Ixodes schulzei 1951 with Fonseca
Ornithodoros brasiliensis 1923
Ornithodoros rostratus 1911
METHODS
Established the protection test in Rhesus monkeys for diagnosis of yellow fever
Employed a protective test technique on the monkey for the retrospective diagnosis of human infections
Showed the living virus requirement for immunization against yellow fever
Simplified technique of vaccination with serum and with living cerebral virus
Developed a vaccine against spirillosis in chickens (1907)
Prepared an efficient vaccine against Treponema gallinarum (1911)
First employed formaldehyde as a vaccine sterilizer (1911)
A method for bacteriological diagnosis of plague in only 16 hours
With H. da Rocha Lima. Nova técnica para o diagnóstico da “peste”. Ann. Braz. Med. (1906)
Developed a method for diagnosis and conservation of parasites in blood and faeces using a modified Thoma’s fluid
Novo Methodo para facilitar o diagnostico e a conservação dos embryões de filaria no sangue e de parasitas nas fezes. Brasil Médico 33(2):9, 1918
Aragão solution or liquid for examining amebic cysts
EPONYMS
Aragão-Vianna bacterium (Calymmatobacterium granulomatis)
Aragão bodies
HONORS
Honorary Member, Société de Pathologie Exotique, France
Bernhard Nocht Medal
DID YOU KNOW?
He suggested Australian government that myxomatosis virus should be used for rabbit control that was adopted decades later (1919)
LINKS
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/mioc/v53n2-3-4/tomo53(f2-3-4)_006-020.pdf (bibliography)
His son, Mário de Beaurepaire Aragão, parasitologist (Rio de Janeiro 10 May 1918 – Rio de Janeiro 01 October 1999)
With N. Margem & E. Frota-Pessoa. A new radioactive method for marking mosquitoes and its application. Proc. Geneve Conference on Peaceful Applications of Atomic Energy. page 40, 1955.
HONORS
Mariostrongylus Teixeira de Freitas & Franco 1967 (Nematoda)