Gerhard Armauer Hansen

Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen ( born July 29, 1841 in Bergen, Norway, † February 12, 1912 in Floro ) was a Norwegian physician, and zoologist in Bergen, in 1873 the causative agent of leprosy, the Mycobacterium leprae, identified in unstained specimens.

Life

Hansen was born as the eighth of 15 children in Bergen as a son of Elizabeth Concordia Schram and Claus Hansen. He attended high school and a medical school and then went to the University of Oslo. In 1866 he graduated with honors. In 1868, he returned to his birthplace, where he worked in an institute for leprosy research with Prof. Daniel Cornelius Danielssen ( 1815-1894 ). In 1871 he received a scholarship to study abroad and go to Bonn and Vienna, to study the newly developed histological staining techniques.

On February 28 1873 Hansen described in detail his observations of the Mycobacterium leprae, which represents the first detection of bacteria as a cause of human disease. During his publication is hardly noticed, is a publication of the German bacteriologist Albert Neisser in 1880 much attention and the name " Neisser bacillus " is commonly known to the public. The work is based on tissue samples, he returns with a research stay at Danielssen and Hansen in Bergen, and where the first successful staining of bacteria. It was not until 1897 Hansen is widely recognized at an international congress in Berlin as describer.

Hansen was married twice, first with the daughter of his mentor Daniel Danielssen, Stephanie Marie, who died shortly after the marriage of tuberculosis. Later he married Johanne Margrethe Tidemand, with whom he had a son. Hansen died from the after-effects of syphilis from heart disease.