Salvador Mazza

Salvador Mazza (June 6, 1886 – November 9, 1946) was a noted Argentine physician and epidemiologist, best known for his strides in helping control American trypanosomiasis, an endemic disease among the rural, poor majority of early 20th century South America.

Life and work Early career Mazza was born in Retiro, Buenos Aires, to Francesco Mazza and Giuseppa Alfisi (both immigrants from Sicily), in 1886, and was raised in Rauch, a small pampas town. A precocious student, Mazza was accepted into the prestigious, public college preparatory school, the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, at age ten. Upon graduation he applied for enlistment in the Argentine Naval Academy; but was rejected on medical grounds. He enrolled, instead, at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) School of Medicine, graduating in 1903.

During his graduate studies, he accepted a post as Health Inspector for the then-rural Province of Buenos Aires, where he focused on disease prevention and vaccination. Following his 1903 graduation, he specialized in microbiology and pathology. He organized and briefly directed the quarantine facility for cholera-stricken seafarers and immigrants on Martín García Island, and then performed his medical residency in a number of European hospitals before earning his degree of Doctor of Medicine and returning to Argentina, in 1910. He then met a fellow Italian Argentine, Clorinda Brígida Razori, and they married in 1914—creating a lasting professional partnership, as well as marriage. (vinchuca). The death of a symptomatic dog in 1926 ultimately led to Mazza's confirmation of the existence of the causal pathogen, Trypanosoma cruzi, in Argentina, in 1927.

On November 9, 1946, Dr. Salvador Mazza suffered a sudden, severe attack of hypotension, which resulted in his death at age 60. His death was the likely result of trypanosomiasis, the disease he had largely succeeded in controlling in Argentina.

Popular culture

In March 2020, John Oliver mentioned Salvador Mazza on his show Last Week Tonight.