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)