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)