Rodrigo Zeledón Araya, Costa Rican parasitologist, medical entomologist and microbiologist (Puntarenas 15 February 1930 –
Authored over 240 papers, 4 monographs, 9 books and 15 book chapters
First to obtain in vitro culture of Dermatobia hominis larvae
With R. Brenes elucidated the complete life cycle of trematode species Paragonimus mexicanus
Discovered and described the phenomenon of nymphs of Triatoma dimidiata hide itselves in the dust of houses
Described a sensitive skin test for chronic Chagas disease in With C. Ponce. A skin test for the diagnosis of Chagas disease. Trans. Royal Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 68:414-5, 1974
Developed a culture medium for distinguishing Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma rangeli
First to demonstrate that flagellates protozoan bind favouredly to cells surface of insects rectal glands
Demonstrated the relationship between the physiology of Leishmania mexicana and the body temperature of Guinea pig
Developed a method to isolate Leishmania panamensis from Phlebotomus sp.
Proposed the utilization of an antigen from Crithidia oncopelti in Montenegro intradermal test
Presented a new treatment of Costa Rican cutaneous leishmaniosis with drug infiltration into lesion
Proposed visting vectors index, a d risk parameter
First to describe the possibility of spontaneous cure for Chagas disease
With J.C.P. Dias, A. Brilla Salazar, J.M. Rezende, L.G. Vargas & A. Urbina. Does a spontaneous cure for Chagas disease exist? Rev. Soc. Bras. Med. Trop. 21:15-20, 1988
DESCRIBED NEW SPECIES
Protozoa
Leishmania herreri 1979 with Ponce & Murillo
Leptomonas costaricensis 2006 with Yurchenko et al.
Trypanosoma leonidasdeanei 1969 with Rosabal
Arthropoda
Triatoma ryckmani 1972 with Ponce
HONORS
Zelonia Shaw, Camargo & Teixeira 2016 (Protozoa)
LINKS
http://www.conicit.go.cr/sector_cyt/cientificos/especialistas/RodrigoZeledon.pdf (Spanish)