DANIEL ALCIDES CARRIÓN: BIOGRAPHY, DISCOVERIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Daniel Alcides Carrión (1857-1885) was a renowned Peruvian doctor, whose meritorious contributions contributed on a large scale to the field of medicine, not only Latin American, but also universal. In fact, Alcides was so committed to his scientific work that he was even nicknamed "the martyr of Peruvian medicine."

This is because the acclaimed doctor made the decision to inoculate himself in order to discover what were the processes of a terrible disease known as the Peruvian wart. Said inoculation process consisted in the implantation of infectious material in order to analyze the patterns of the virus and find a possible cure.

The sacrifice of Daniel Alcides Carrión - which cost him his life - allowed the link that exists between the Peruvian wart and Oroya fever to become known, since both diseases respond to the same pathology.

In his honor, there are several places that bear his name, especially some universities, such as the Daniel Alcides Carrión National University, located in Cerro de Pasco, and the “Daniel Alcides Carrión” Faculty of Human Medicine, located in the city of Ica.

Biography

Alcides Carrión, considered a hero of medicine, was born in the historic city of Cerro de Pasco on August 13, 1857. His father, of Ecuadorian origin, was a lawyer and doctor named Baltazar Carrión. His mother, a native of Peru, was Dolores García Navarro.

It should be noted that Carrión was the product of extramarital affairs, so his father never wanted to recognize him as his son, something that happened frequently at that time.

Then, Dolores García had to take care of Daniel Alcides on her own, without the help of her lover, undertaking the arduous work of a single mother.

Studies

Daniel Alcides Carrión, after completing his studies in his hometown, decided to travel to the capital to do his secondary studies in 1870. Then he began his university studies at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, where he carried out his medicinal research.

It is important to note that the young Carrión began to study medicine just when the university was going through a severe economic crisis, at which time the professors did not receive their salary.

In addition, due to the strong racism that was brewing in the capital, Alcides Carrión had been rejected a year earlier by the university thanks to his mestizo status.

In other words, Daniel Alcides Carrión began his studies at a critical moment in the history of Peru, when there was serious racial discrimination, economic problems, and diseases that arose especially in the poorest communities, especially among indigenous people and workers who worked. in mines and some constructions.

Inoculation

Due to his great concern for public health and his thirst for knowledge, Carrión decided to inoculate himself with the Peruvian wart disease virus, which had strong outbreaks in the central Peruvian valleys.

As a result, the remarkable doctor died at an early age on October 5, 1885, a date that is remembered as the day of Peruvian medicine.

Carrión's death brought with it much controversy and conjecture. For example, the young man's teachers were accused of murdering him, as they had collaborated in the student's lethal experiment. However, there was no solid evidence to support this accusation.

Discoveries

Previously it was thought that infectious diseases were caused by climatic changes or miasmatic effluvia - that is, stagnant waters. However, thanks to the investigations of characters such as Pasteur or Lister, scholars were able to realize that the cause of these infections actually came from microbes and bacteria.

In fact, each disease contains microorganisms that are made up of its own group of bacteria. Currently, this information can be easily found on any web page, however, in the 19th century this discovery represented a before and after in the universal history of medicine.

Both Carrión and his colleagues and professors were unaware of this information, but as of 1884 this news reached the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

Likewise, they realized that the bacteria could be identified and fought thanks to the use of serums and vaccines that contained deadly substances for said infections.

This information aroused the admiration of young doctors, since it represented a new horizon of expectations within Peruvian medicine. Among these young people was Daniel Alcides Carrión, who was inspired by these discoveries to undertake his own research.

Oroya fever and Peruvian wart

While studying at the university, Carrión developed a notable interest in two of the most common and harmful infectious diseases of the moment: Oroya fever and the Peruvian wart.

In the first case, it was a very strong fever and anemia, which quickly ended the life of the patient. In the second case, the person with the Peruvian wart had sudden appearance of skin nodules and some milder general symptoms.

Guided by his scientific intuition and knowledge, Alcides Carrión realized that both diseases actually belonged to the same pathology; that is, both Oroya fever and Peruvian wart were different manifestations of the same disease.

This was his great discovery, since previously it was thought that these diseases belonged to a different etiology.

Carrión intuited that these diseases could be related, since both had the same geographical distribution, which made him become increasingly interested in the subject.

Need for human volunteers

One of the characteristics of this disease is that it only occurred in humans, therefore it could not be studied in animals, but human volunteers were necessary.

In August 1885 the doctor made the decision to inoculate himself with this disease in order to get the proofs of his theory; his plan was to take notes and notes as the symptoms worsened.

Through the blood of the patient Carmen Paredes, which was extracted directly from the warts, Alcides Carrión injected himself with the disease with the help of Dr. Evaristo M. Chávez.

Disease registry

Daniel Alcides Carrión wrote his own medical history until September 25 of that same year, date on which, due to the worsening of severe anemia and other symptoms, it was difficult for him to continue writing.

However, his efforts did not end there, as he had asked his colleagues to continue his research when he no longer had the ability to continue recording his illness.

As can be seen, the importance of Carrión's discovery is undoubted, since it allowed to clarify the enigma of the Oroya fever, whose outbreak had occurred years ago in a railway station under construction, which had caused the death of hundreds of people, especially workers.

It is important to add that the living conditions of these workers were really precarious in comparison with the opulence of the owners of the mining and railways.

This information came to us thanks to foreign travelers, who were in charge of recording what they saw. In conditions of this type, diseases were to be expected in the region.

Contributions

Thanks to this discovery, in 1909 it was possible to describe the microorganism that caused the disease: it is a bacterium known as Bartonella Badhiformis, also called Carrión's disease in honor of the doctor.

This bacterium appears in a limited area of ​​some Latin American valleys and rivers in countries such as Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

In other words, it is an endemic disease - that is, it affects a certain region or country - with asymptomatic cases.

This characteristic makes it really dangerous, since the carrier does not realize that he has been infected, causing his body to act as a reservoir for the infection and allowing the disease to spread to other places.

Transmission between humans

Similarly, Daniel Alcides Carrión managed to show that this disease was caused by a germ that was susceptible to being transmitted from one human being to another, despite the medicinal limitations of the time.

This was due to the fact that the Peruvian university did not have a laboratory that would offer the necessary implements to study bacteria, which made Carrión's work even more admirable.

In fact, neither he nor his teachers had experience in the cultivation, isolation, and reproduction of diseases. In college they had been able to read European magazines and research on bacteria; however, none of them had developed a research project of this magnitude.

Through his own inoculation, Carrión was able to demonstrate that the disease could be transmitted from person to person, proving that certain climatic conditions were not necessary for the disease to spread.

In the history of medicine, Daniel Alcides Carrión is the first example that demonstrates the controversy that can arise when you want to carry out an experiment that requires the use of human beings.

As can be seen, Alcides considered that the first person to offer to carry out such an investigation should be the same investigator.

References

1. García-Cáceres, Uriel (1991). Bartonellosis. An immunodepressive disease and the life of Daniel Alcides Carrión ”. Retrieved on August 27 from Europe PMC: europepmc.org
2. García-Cáceres, Uriel (2006). "Daniel Alcides Carrión. A functional vision ”. Retrieved on August 27 from Scielo: scielo.org.pe
3. Lavalr, Enrique. (2003). "Daniel Alcides Carrión". Retrieved on August 27 from the Chilean Journal of Infectology: dx.doi.org
4. Delgado García, Gregorio and Delgado Rodríguez, Ana M (1995). "Daniel Alcides Carrión and his contribution to the clinical knowledge of Oroya fever and Peruvian wart". Retrieved on August 27 from Cuban Medical Journals: bvs.sld.cu/revistas
5. Salina Flores, David. "The experiment of Daniel Alcides Carrión: A real story" (2013). Retrieved on August 27, Diagnosis: fihu-diagnostico.org.pe