O. E. H. Wucherer

Otto Eduard Heinrich usurers (* July 7, 1820 in Porto, Portugal, † May 7, 1873 in Bahia, Brazil ) was a German - Brazilian doctor who discovered the causative agent of lymphatic filariasis tropical disease (tropical elephantiasis ). The causative agent Wuchereria bancrofti is named after him and the Australian doctor Joseph Bancroft.

Life

Otto usurer was born the son of a German merchant and his Dutch wife in Porto in Portugal, his family later emigrated to Brazil. He received his education in Hamburg, after the death of his father, he worked in a pharmacy. He studied until 1841 at the University of Tübingen and received his doctorate in medicine at Ferdinand Gottlieb Gmelin ( De mutationibus quas syphilis ejusque medendae ratio subiit ). He was clinically active in London, then he moved to Portugal in 1843 and to Brazil. In 1847 he settled in Salvador as a doctor of the German colony down. In addition to his practice, he also worked at the local hospital and one of the founders of the journal Gazeta Medica da Bahia. He was interested in parasitology, he proved first in Brazil hookworms. In 1866, he discovered later named after him and Joseph Bancroft nematode Wuchereria bancrofti, the causative agent of lymphatic filariasis ( elephantiasis tropical ) in the urine of a patient. His interest also the poisonous snakes in the region. Both scientifically and in socio-medical question Ask usurer was heavily influenced by the writings of Rudolf Virchow.

In 1871 he returned to Germany and lived with his family in Stuttgart. In January 1873 usurer was forced for economic reasons to return alone to Brazil, where he died on May 7.

Usurer was married twice, his first wife died of yellow fever, with his second wife he had a son.