Brazil Banknotes 10 Cruzados Novos on 10000 Cruzados banknote 1989 Carlos Chagas
Central Bank of Brazil - Banco Central do Brasil
Obverse: Portrait of Carlos Chagas (1879–1934), was a Brazilian sanitary physician, scientist and bacteriologist who worked as a clinician and researcher. He discovered Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis in 1909, while working at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro. Stylized image of life cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi at center.
Reverse: Carlos Chagas doing research using microscope, in his laboratory at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
Watermark: Portrait of Carlos Chagas.
Colors: violet, orange, gray-brown.
Size: 154 x 74 mm.
Printer: Casa da Moeda do Brasil (CMB).
Brazilian Currency Banknotes - Brazil Paper Money
1989 Issue
January 1989 Monetary Reform: 1 Cruzado Novo = 1000 Cruzados
black triangular overprint of new currency unit on old Cruzados banknotes
January 1989 Monetary Reform: 1 Cruzado Novo = 1000 Cruzados
black triangular overprint of new currency unit on old Cruzados banknotes
Carlos Chagas
Carlos Justiniano Ribeiro Chagas, or Carlos Chagas (1879–1934), was a Brazilian sanitary physician, scientist and bacteriologist who worked as a clinician and researcher. He discovered Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis in 1909, while working at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro.
Chagas' work holds a unique place in the history of medicine. Working in primitive conditions, Chagas described in detail a previously unknown infectious disease: its pathogen, vector (Triatominae), host, clinical manifestations and epidemiology. Chagas was also the first to discover and illustrate the parasitic fungal genus Pneumocystis, later infamous for being linked to PCP (Pneumocystis pneumonia in AIDS patients).
The discovery of Chagas disease
In 1906, Chagas returned to Rio de Janeiro and joined the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, where he remained working for the rest of his life. In 1909, he was sent by the Institute to the small city of Lassance, near the São Francisco River, to combat a malaria outbreak among the workers of a new railroad to the city of Belém in the Amazon. He stayed there for the next two years and soon was able to observe the peculiar infestation of the rural houses with a large hematophagous insect of the genus Triatoma, a kind of "assassin bug" or "kissing" bug (barbeiro or "barber" in Portuguese, so called because it sucked the blood at night by biting the faces of its victims). He discovered that the intestines of these insects harbored flagellate protozoa, a new species of the Trypanosoma genera, and was able to prove experimentally that it could be transmitted to marmoset monkeys which were bitten by the infected bug. Chagas named this new parasite Trypanosoma cruzi in honor of Oswaldo Cruz and later that year as Schizotrypanum cruzi and then once again as Trypanosoma cruzi.)
Chagas suspected that the parasite could cause human disease, due to the prevalence of the insect vector in human households and its habit of biting people, so he took blood samples and, on April 23, 1909, discovered for the first time the same Trypanosoma parasite in the blood of a three-year-old girl. He also observed parasitic inclusions in the brain and myocardium which would explain some of the clinical manifestations in diseased people and closed the proposed life cycle of the parasite by suggesting that the armadillo could be its natural reservoir. To complete his work on the pathology of the new disease, Chagas described 27 cases of the acute form of the disease and performed more than 100 autopsies on patients who exhibited the chronic form.
His description of the new disease was to become a classic in medicine and brought him domestic and international distinction. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and received the prestigious Schaudinn Prize for the best work in protozoology and tropical medicine, on June 22, 1912. Chagas was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, in 1913 and 1921, but never received the award.
Trypanosoma cruzi
Trypanosoma cruzi is a species of parasitic euglenoid protozoan. Amongst the protozoa, the trypanosomes characteristically bore tissue in another organism and feed on blood, and lymph. This behaviour causes disease or the likelihood of disease that varies with the organism: for example, trypanosomiasis in humans (Chagas disease in South America and sleeping sickness in Africa), dourine and surra in horses, and a brucellosis-like disease in cattle. Parasites need a host body and the haematophagous insect triatomine (descriptions "assassin bug", "cone-nose bug", and "kissing bug") is the major vector in accord with a mechanism of infection. The triatomine likes the nests of vertebrate animals for shelter, where it bites and sucks blood for food. Individual triatomines infected with protozoa from other contact with animals transmit trypanosomes when the triatomine deposits its faeces on the host's skin surface and then bites. Penetration of the infected faeces is further facilitated by the scratching of the bite area by the human or animal host.
Trypanosomiasis in humans progresses with the development of the trypanosome into a trypomastigote in the blood and into an amastigote in tissues. The acute form of trypanosomiasis is usually unnoticed, although it may manifest itself as a localized swelling at the site of entry. The chronic form may develop 10 to 20 years after infection and affect internal organs (e.g., the heart, the oesophagus, the colon, and the peripheral nervous system). Affected people may die from heart failure.
Acute cases are treated with nifurtimox and benznidazole, but no effective therapy for chronic cases is currently known.
Life cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi
The Trypanosoma cruzi life cycle starts in an animal reservoir, usually mammals, wild or domestic, including humans. A triatomine bug serves as the vector. While taking a blood meal, it ingests T. cruzi. In the triatomine bug (Triatoma infestans) the parasite goes into the epimastigote stage, making it possible to reproduce. After reproducing through binary fission, the epimastigotes move onto the rectal cell wall, where they become infectious. Infectious T. cruzi are called metacyclic trypomastigotes. When the triatomine bug subsequently takes a blood meal from a human, it defecates. The trypomastigotes are in the feces and are capable of swimming into the host's cells using flagella, a characteristic swimming tail dominant in the Euglenoid class of protists.
The trypomastigotes enter the human host through the bite wound or by crossing mucous membranes. The host cells contain macromolecules such as laminin, thrombospondin, heparin sulphate, and fibronectin that cover their surface. These macromolecules are essential for adhesion between parasite and host and for the process of host invasion by the parasite. The trypomastigotes must cross a network of proteins that line the exterior of the host cells in order to make contact and invade the host cells. The molecules and proteins on the cytoskeleton of the cell also bind to the surface of the parasite and initiate host invasion. When they enter a human cell, they become amastigotes. This is another reproductive stage. After reproducing through binary fission until a large amount of amastigotes are present in a cell, pseudocysts are formed there. The amastigotes then turn back into trypomastigotes, and the cell bursts. The trypomastigotes swim along to either infect other cells or get sucked up by other reduviid bugs.