Maxime Kuczynski (1890-1967) was a famous doctor of German origin of Jewish descent born in Poznan on February 2, 1890. However, he spent much of his life conducting medical and scientific studies in areas as diverse and remote as Brazil, Mongolia, the Soviet Union, Africa and Latin America, to name a few places.
His fame has arisen because his medical work did not focus only on the pure scientific investigation of the disease, but rather sought to relate it to the context in which it occurred, evaluating culture, society and geography to determine the relationship between certain areas and the prevalence of some diseases.
By PPK, via Wikimedia Commons
Likewise, its strategic location in Peru led him to focus his research on diseases that occur in the tropics. This eminent scientist is also known for being the father of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, president of Peru from 2016 to 2018.
Biography
When Kuczynski was born in Posen, present-day Polish territory, it belonged to the German Empire. His parents Louis Kuczynski and Emma Schlesinger were Jewish and moved to Berlin shortly after Maxime's birth. There I study medicine, natural sciences and philosophy, all this before 1915.
Kuczynski participated in World War I as part of the German Army on the Balkan Front before obtaining a doctorate in Medicine in Berlin, where he also began his scientific career at the Institute of Pathology where he began to develop his life's work in the disease research.
It is true that very little is known about his life before his arrival in Peru, but it cannot be denied that he was passionate about travel. He made several expeditions, of which he carried out complex scientific analyzes that allowed him to publish an important volume of works on pathology and nutrition.
Scientific work
His interest in science paid off and at the end of the first quarter of the 20th century he was considered one of the most important scientists of the moment and the greatest expert in his field. Between 1923 and 1924 he was invited to the Medical Institute of the University of Omsk in Siberia.
He then made several expeditions to the Soviet Union, Mongolia and China, studying the field of science that made him famous: the relationship between diseases and the geographical and socio-cultural context of the communities in which they develop. Thanks to his discoveries in this area, he published Estepa y hombre in 1925.
He continued his work on various infectious diseases in North Africa and Brazil, periodically returning home to Germany. However, in 1933 she had to leave her native country permanently due to the Nazi persecution against the Jews.
Life in Peru
Exiled from his country due to Nazi persecution, Kuczynski sought refuge in the Soviet Union, although not being very comfortable there, he moved to Peru in 1936, where he was nationalized.
He quickly resumed his scientific work, this time at the Institute of Social Medicine of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, where he rubbed shoulders with other prominent figures in medicine such as Carlos Enrique Paz Soldán, who is known as a precursor of social medicine in Peru..
His interest in the Peruvian rural classes is given because, shortly after starting his studies in the country, he noticed that the inhabitants of the jungle and the highlands were largely ignored by public and political organizations, living in extremely poor sanitary conditions in which the misery and malnutrition became the cause of many diseases.
Two years later, in 1938, he began to work in the jungles and rural communities accompanied by the sanitary supervision of the Peruvian Northeast from the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance.
Between 1940 and 1944 he began his fight against leprosy, typhus, the Peruvian wart and similar diseases, as well as against the rejection and mistreatment of those who suffered from said disease.
Kuczynski and politics
He was only able to dedicate himself to his work in the Andes for a few years, since in 1948 the military coup of Manuel Odría occurred. This caused great political and social instability in the country; Kuczynski himself was imprisoned for his social ideals.
After this event, all professional relationships with San Marcos and the Ministry of Health were canceled.
Last years
This break led Kuczynski, now an elderly man, to dedicate himself only to clinical practice from that time until his death. It came almost 20 years later, when he was 77 years old. Kuczynski died in Lima, Peru, in 1967, in his private practice that he opened on Calle Panamá.
The education in social values that he instilled in his son Pedro Pablo Kuczynski led him to study economics and politics, reaching the position of president of Peru in 2016.
Contributions
With his work, Kuczynski managed to improve the living conditions of a large number of patients nationwide. They went from isolation and almost non-existent treatment to organized health care, decent living conditions and outpatient treatment inside and outside the institutions.
The German-born doctor was also interested in the social and economic causes that made certain social classes and communities more prone to this disease, promoting its prevention where it was most needed.
His success with the work on leprosy earned him a commission from the Ministry of Health to carry out various medical and social studies in the southern area of the Andes; however, these did not come to fruition since the Republic of Peru faced a turbulent time of political and social conflicts.
These conflicts affected the doctor of German origin, minimizing his actions and making him lose the support of the government that he won thanks to his multiple achievements in the field of social medicine and anthropology.
It is worth saying that his important work, not only medical and scientific but also social and anthropological, led to the development of a branch of scientific research that was previously little recognized.
References
- "Biography of Maxime Kuczynski - Godard" in Illustrious Characters - UNMSM. Retrieved on September 27, 2018 from Illustrious Characters: unmsm.edu.pe
- Burstein, Z. "Maxime Kuczynski-Godrad, a pioneer of public health" (2003). Retrieved on September 27, 2018 from Scielo Peru: scielo.org.pe
- Cueto, M. "Social Medicine and Leprosy" (2004) in The Americas. Retrieved on September 26, 2018 from History of Leprosy: leprosyhistory.org
- Vivas, F. "The footprint of doctor K: a profile of Maxime Kuczynski Godard" (2016) in El Comercio. Retrieved on September 27, 2018 from El Comercio: elcomercio.pe
- Burstein, Z. “Maxime Kuczynski-Godard, a pioneer of Public Health” (2003) in the Peruvian Journal of Experimental Medicine and Public Health. Retrieved on September 27, 2018 in the Peruvian Journal of Experimental Medicine and Public Health: rpmesp.ins.gob.pe