[Thomas Mann and the infectious diseases in the first half of 20th. century. Second part: Tuberculosis, cholera and transplants]. / Thomas Mann y las enfermedades infecciosas en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Parte II: Tuberculosis, cólera, trasplantes.

Surely Thomas Mann is today a forgotten writer, with only a little and selected group of readers between our young colleagues. However, perhaps could be useful for the others some knowledge about his vision of the infectious diseases in the first half of the twentieth century, when he wrote the novels here reviewed. Typhoid fever, meningitis, syphilis, tuberculosis and cholera are present in Mann's thematic from Buddenbrooks till Doktor Faustus, always with a personal focus, more on spirit -the will to live- rather than flesh and bones... or bacteria. One of his lasts and minor works let us throw an ironical glance over transplant, no so named, indeed, by Mann, who speaks of "exchange". In this second part we present tuberculosis, cholera and…transplant.

[Thomas Mann and infectious diseases in the first half of the 20th century. Part I: Typhoid fever, meningitis and syphilis]. / Thomas Mann y las enfermedades infecciosas en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Parte I: Fiebre tifoidea, meningitis y sífilis.

Surely, Thomas Mann is today a forgotten writer, with only a little and precious group of readers between our young colleagues. However, perhaps could be useful for the others some knowledge about his vision of the infectious diseases in the first half of the twentieth century, when he wrote the novels here reviewed. Typhoid fever, meningitis, tuberculosis, syphilis and cholera are present in Mann's thematic from Buddenbrooks till Doktor Faustus, always with a personal focus, more on spirit -the will to live - rather than on flesh and bones… or bacteria. One of his later and minor works let us throw an ironical glance over transplant, no so named, indeed, by Mann, who speaks of "exchange". In this first part we present typhoid fever, meningitis and syphilis.

Thomas Mann y las enfermedades infecciosas en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Parte II: Tuberculosis, cólera, trasplantes / Thomas Mann and the infectious diseases in the first half of 20th. century: second part: tuberculosis, cholera and transplants

Resumen Con seguridad Thomas Mann es hoy en día un escritor olvidado, para los infectólogos y para todo el mundo, con apenas un selecto grupo de poquísimos lectores entre nuestros jóvenes colegas. No les hará mal, a éstos y a aquéllos, sin embargo, adquirir algún conocimiento de las ideas sobre las enfermedades infecciosas en la primera mitad del siglo XX, período en que Mann escribió las obras aquí comentadas: por el contrario puede resultarles particularmente útil si este conocimiento les llega a través de la visión muy personal del germano, quien pone el foco más en el espíritu -la voluntad, el alma en suma- que en el componente físico de la enfermedad, en la miseria corporal, ignorando de paso, desdeñosamente, a las bacterias causantes.

Surely Thomas Mann is today a forgotten writer, with only a little and selected group of readers between our young colleagues. However, perhaps could be useful for the others some knowledge about his vision of the infectious diseases in the first half of the twentieth century, when he wrote the novels here reviewed. Typhoid fever, meningitis, syphilis, tuberculosis and cholera are present in Mann's thematic from Buddenbrooks till Doktor Faustus, always with a personal focus, more on spirit -the will to live- rather than flesh and bones... or bacteria. One of his lasts and minor works let us throw an ironical glance over transplant, no so named, indeed, by Mann, who speaks of "exchange". In this second part we present tuberculosis, cholera and…transplant.

[Real time history of 21st century bacteria: giants and martians]. / Historia en tiempo real de las bacterias del siglo XXI: gigantes y marcianas.

We denominate "21st century bacteria" two types of strange and amazing creatures from the kingdom Protista, discovered between the last years of the twentieth and the present days: the giant bacteria and those with a possible Martian origin. Searching for them, bold investigators have travelled to distant and hostile lands, desolate places and deep waters, performing a kind of investigation that we only can describe as "investigation-adventure". This paper presents expeditions to the Red Sea, fishing the Epulopiscium; to Lake Mono, searching a bacteria able to growth with arsenic; to the Antarctic Circle, finding a meteorite with petrified alien microorganisms; and… to the quiet laboratory, a not less dangerous place.

Thomas Mann y las enfermedades infecciosas en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Parte I: Fiebre tifoidea, meningitis y sífilis

Con seguridad Thomas Mann es hoy en día un escritor olvidado, para los infectólogos y para todo el mundo, con apenas un selecto grupo de poquísimos lectores entre nuestros jóvenes colegas. No les hará mal, a éstos y a aquéllos, sin embargo, adquirir algún conocimiento de las ideas sobre las enfermedades infecciosas en la primera mitad del siglo XX, período en que Mann escribió las obras aquí comentadas: por el contrario puede resultarles particularmente útil si este conocimiento les llega a través de la visión muy personal del germano, quien pone el foco más en el espíritu -la voluntad, el alma en suma- que en el componente físico de la enfermedad, en la miseria corporal, ignorando de paso, desdeñosamente, a las bacterias causantes.

Surely, Thomas Mann is today a forgotten writer, with only a little and precious group of readers between our young colleagues. However, perhaps could be useful for the others some knowledge about his vision of the infectious diseases in the first half of the twentieth century, when he wrote the novels here reviewed. Typhoid fever, meningitis, tuberculosis, syphilis and cholera are present in Mann's thematic from Buddenbrooks till Doktor Faustus, always with a personal focus, more on spirit -the will to live - rather than on flesh and bones… or bacteria. One of his later and minor works let us throw an ironical glance over transplant, no so named, indeed, by Mann, who speaks of "exchange". In this first part we present typhoid fever, meningitis and syphilis.

Historia en tiempo real de las bacterias del siglo XXI: gigantes y marcianas / Real time history of 21st century bacteria: giants and martians

Resumen Hemos denominado bacterias del siglo XXI a dos tipos de extrañas y maravillosas criaturas del Reino Protista, descubiertas entre los últimos años del siglo pasado y los días que hoy vivimos: las bacterias gigantes y las de un posible origen marciano. En su búsqueda, audaces investigadores han viajado a tierras distantes y peligrosas, acampando en lugares desolados y descendiendo a las profundidades marinas, actividades que llamamos investigación aventura. Presentamos como ejemplos una expedición al Mar Rojo, buscando el gigantesco Epulopiscium; una temporada en el lago Mono, California, en pos de una bacteria con arsénico en su ADN; un patrullaje en el Ártico, para encontrar bacterias petrificadas en un meteorito marciano; sin olvidar que el tranquilo laboratorio también puede ser un lugar peligroso, porque toda investigación es una aventura.

We denominate "21st century bacteria" two types of strange and amazing creatures from the kingdom Protista, discovered between the last years of the twentieth and the present days: the giant bacteria and those with a possible Martian origin. Searching for them, bold investigators have travelled to distant and hostile lands, desolate places and deep waters, performing a kind of investigation that we only can describe as "investigation-adventure". This paper presents expeditions to the Red Sea, fishing the Epulopiscium; to Lake Mono, searching a bacteria able to growth with arsenic; to the Antarctic Circle, finding a meteorite with petrified alien microorganisms; and… to the quiet laboratory, a not less dangerous place.

[The way of the rubber]. / El camino del caucho.

Investigations first by Markham, and then by Spruce, performed in the middle of multiple risks, in the deep of dense jungle, through the wild rivers and facing up natives many times hostile, brought the knowledge of the life cycle of Hevea brasiliensis, the rubber's tree, necessary for take its seeds to Asia, its adaptation to this continent and its culture at industrial level. Undoubtedly these men were the heroes of this history, but they were wise, modest and quite people, so the glory was for an entrepreneur decided and of scare scruples, like Wickham. And Brazil, as a good Latin American nation, sinned of naivety, improvidence and negligence, allowing itself the lost of an unimaginable fortune: the monopoly of the rubber. Because the many applications of rubber in medical practice, the history of this tree may interest our colleagues.

El camino del caucho / The way of the rubber

Resumen Las investigaciones de Markham, primero, y luego de Spruce, llevadas a cabo en medio de múltiples peligros, internándose en selvas espesas, vadeando salvajes ríos y enfrentando nativos muchas veces hostiles, permitieron conocer el ciclo de vida del árbol del caucho para el traslado de sus semillas, su aclimatación en Asia y cultivo a nivel industrial. Indudablemente ellos fueron los héroes de esta epopeya al hacer esta investigación venturosa, pero los sabios son modestos y callados, de manera que la gloria se la llevó un empresario decidido y de pocos escrúpulos cual Wickham. En cuanto a Brasil, como buena nación latinoamericana, pecó de ingenuidad, improvisación y negligencia, dejándose arrebatar una inimaginable fortuna: el monopolio del caucho. Creemos que las múltiples aplicaciones médicas del caucho, haciendo menos dolorosos los exámenes y procedimientos, pudieran ser de interés para nuestros colegas.

Investigations first by Markham, and then by Spruce, performed in the middle of multiple risks, in the deep of dense jungle, through the wild rivers and facing up natives many times hostile, brought the knowledge of the life cycle of Hevea brasiliensis, the rubber's tree, necessary for take its seeds to Asia, its adaptation to this continent and its culture at industrial level. Undoubtedly these men were the heroes of this history, but they were wise, modest and quite people, so the glory was for an entrepreneur decided and of scare scruples, like Wickham. And Brazil, as a good Latin American nation, sinned of naivety, improvidence and negligence, allowing itself the lost of an unimaginable fortune: the monopoly of the rubber. Because the many applications of rubber in medical practice, the history of this tree may interest our colleagues.

[Crazy horse disease]. / La enfermedad de los caballos locos.

With the apparition of the crazy cows disease at the end of twentieth century, great was the temptation for denominate "crazy horses disease" an ancient enzootic encephalo-myelitis, known from the 17th century and now named "Borna disease" in 1970, because severe outbreaks affecting horses in this city of Germany since 1885. But the sickness was not a prion disease but a viral one, causing also encephalopathy in several other animal species. After seventy years of investigation, the finding of the virus in human patients with psychiatric pathology in the eighties gave an incentive to work harder, and the genome structure of the so called Bornavirus was completely described. Recently, japanese investigators found that elements homologous to the nucleoprotein (N) gene of Bornavirus exist in the genomes of several mammalian species, including humans, in which these sequences have been designated endogenous Borna-like N (EBLN) elements. And now the question is what they are doing there since their integration two million years ago.

La enfermedad de los caballos locos / Crazy horse disease

Resumen Con la aparición de la enfermedad de las vacas locas a finales del siglo XX, nació la tentación de llamar enfermedad de los caballos locos a una Antigua enzootia alemana, una encéfalo-mielietis conocida desde el siglo XVII y desde 1970 llamada "enfermedad de Borna", a causa de severos brotes afectando a los caballos en esa ciudad de la Sajonia desde 1885. Como los animales caminaban en círculos, cruzaban las patas, se veían lentos y estúpidos y parecían experimentar fuerte cefalea, algunos observadores ignorantes, entonces y ahora, pudieron pensar que estos caballos estaban locos. Más, no era una encefalitis espongiforme causada por un prion, sino una infección viral que podía afectar a varias especies animales. Después de setenta años de investigación en busca del agente causal, la aparición de las vacas locas motivó a los investigadores a darse prisa, que se hizo frenética al encontrar el virus en pacientes humanos afectados por diversas patologías psiquiátricas en los años ochenta, hasta llegar a la completa secuenciación del ahora llamado Bornavirus. No terminaba de rechazarse por completo su rol en estas patologías, cuando investigadores japoneses encontraron elementos homólogos al gen de la nucleoproteína N del virus en el genoma de varias especies de mamíferos, incluyendo la humana. Designadas estas secuencias como elementos endógenos Borna-like N (EBLN), que se habrían integrado a nuestro genoma hace dos millones de años, la pregunta que surge es… ¿qué han estado haciendo allí durante tanto tiempo?

With the apparition of the crazy cows disease at the end of twentieth century, great was the temptation for denominate "crazy horses disease" an ancient enzootic encephalo-myelitis, known from the 17th century and now named "Borna disease" in 1970, because severe outbreaks affecting horses in this city of Germany since 1885. But the sickness was not a prion disease but a viral one, causing also encephalopathy in several other animal species. After seventy years of investigation, the finding of the virus in human patients with psychiatric pathology in the eighties gave an incentive to work harder, and the genome structure of the so called Bornavirus was completely described. Recently, japanese investigators found that elements homologous to the nucleoprotein (N) gene of Bornavirus exist in the genomes of several mammalian species, including humans, in which these sequences have been designated endogenous Borna-like N (EBLN) elements. And now the question is what they are doing there since their integration two million years ago.

Historia sucinta de Candida albicans, blanca pero no tanto / Brief history of Candida, white but not so much

From the begin of clinical microbiology in the second half of the nineteenth century, the fungi were neglected as contaminants without relevance for health, belonging the major advances of their study to the fields of milk derivatives and beer industries. However, the seek for the etiological agent of thrush, a very common oral pathology affecting the newborn, put the yeasts on the table near 1840 with three capital papers - Berg, Gruby and Bennett - speaking about spores from vegetable as parasites of animal and human beings. The door was open, and very soon, in 1853, came the decisive description by Robin of the Oidium albicans as the causative agent of this painful disease. Seventy years after, in 1923, Christine Marie Berkhout, rejecting this name, defined the genus as Candida, leaving the specie with the iterative Latin name of Candida albicans, that means "White-white". Or, perhaps, with a fine sense of humor, she has made an oxymoron, because "candida" means a brilliant white and "albicans" a matt one, both opposite adjectives. Or, may be, Christine is still saying us: "White…but not so white".

[Notes for a History of Hygiene taken from the Bible]. / Notas para una Historia de la Higiene tomadas de la Biblia.

Reading once more the Gospels, we found a discussion between Jesus and the Pharisee about the hand washing, this golden rule of medicine, and then, with the help of Thomas Mann, we began a search for other notes on hygiene in the Bible. For the return from Egypt to the Promised Land, Moses established several rules for his people, some of them disguised as religious principles, concerning elimination of excreta, healthy and poisonous foods, isolation in case of contagious diseases (leprosy, gonorrhea), decontamination of clothes and houses, and many others that now seem to us ahead his time.

Una mirada crítica sobre la medicina en el Antiguo Egipto / A critical regard over the medicine in the Ancient Egypt

Generally, writing about the medicine in the Ancient Egypt, historians adopt an approach rather benevolent than critical, giving to its practice merits that never had. Reading without prejudice the famous twelve papyri -and now one more- we can't less to pronounce a condemnatory sentence, because at the end this medicine looks like a patchwork of ignorance, superstition, magic believes and a pair of grains of knowledge. However, we can rescue its surgical practice, very useful, sometimes efficient, and quite necessary in those centuries of war, slavery and permanent abuse of the weak and the poor people by the high political rulers and priests.

Creemos que, con mucha benevolencia, los historiadores médicos sobrestiman la medicina del Antiguo Egipto, elevando a la categoría de arte o de ciencia una práctica que más tenía de magia. Y, hablando de ella, llama la atención que ésta es bien rara en los papiros más antiguos, donde hay más medicina que superstición, aumentando los conjuros y las invocaciones a medida que más recientes son los documentos encontrados, quizás porque el gremio médico, al ver que los conocimientos terapéuticos empezaban a difundirse entre la masa, quiso mantener la exclusividad de ellos, agregando a la administración de los remedios físicos un ritual misterioso y esotérico, dotando así al ejercicio médico de una raíz sagrada: la magia conserva su encanto hasta la actualidad y hasta los más ilustrados creen en curaciones milagrosas. Sólo son rescatables los aspectos quirúrgicos. El desarrollo de la cirugía y de algunas especialidades que la emplean, como la obstetricia y ginecología, respondía seguramente a la época que se vivía entonces, donde la guerra, la opresión, el abuso y la brutalidad reinantes, favorecían la génesis de heridas, traumas, quemaduras, abortos y accidentes varios, haciendo imperativo su tratamiento rápido y oportuno.

Notas para una Historia de la Higiene tomadas de la Biblia / Notes for a History of Hygiene taken from the Bible

Reading once more the Gospels, we found a discussion between Jesus and the Pharisee about the hand washing, this golden rule of medicine, and then, with the help of Thomas Mann, we began a search for other notes on hygiene in the Bible. For the return from Egypt to the Promised Land, Moses established several rules for his people, some of them disguised as religious principles, concerning elimination of excreta, healthy and poisonous foods, isolation in case of contagious diseases (leprosy, gonorrhea), decontamination of clothes and houses, and many others that now seem to us ahead his time.

Leyendo una vez más los Evangelios, encontramos una discusión de Jesús con los fariseos sobre el lavado de manos antes de comer, que sus discípulos no respetaban. Como Jesús pareciera minimizar la utilidad de esta regla de oro para la medicina actual, fuimos a buscar otras notas bíblicas sobre las disposiciones higiénicas de aquellos tiempos, siguiendo una revisión que hiciera Thomas Mann para una de sus obras menores. Aparecen, fundamentalmente en el Levítico, numerosas recomendaciones, disposiciones y reglas que Moisés, invocando la autoridad de Yahvé, entregó al pueblo que salía de Egipto en pos de la Tierra Prometida, comprendiendo eliminación de excretas, alimentos recomendables y no recomendables, y aislamiento de enfermos en el caso de enfermedades que consideraban contagiosas, como lepra y gonorrea. También se detallaban en ellas la descontaminación de ropas y de casas, al igual que de otros objetos que habían estado en contacto con elementos estimados impuros, como cadáveres. Algunas de estas disposiciones, entre ellas las relativas al aislamiento de los enfermos, hoy nos parecen adelantadas a su época.

[A critical regard over the medicine in the Ancient Egypt]. / Una mirada crítica sobre la medicina en el Antiguo Egipto.

Generally, writing about the medicine in the Ancient Egypt, historians adopt an approach rather benevolent than critical, giving to its practice merits that never had. Reading without prejudice the famous twelve papyri -and now one more- we can't less to pronounce a condemnatory sentence, because at the end this medicine looks like a patchwork of ignorance, superstition, magic believes and a pair of grains of knowledge. However, we can rescue its surgical practice, very useful, sometimes efficient, and quite necessary in those centuries of war, slavery and permanent abuse of the weak and the poor people by the high political rulers and priests.

[Rudolf Krauss, Giovanni Noe and a flash of infectious diseases in Chile, 1930]. / Rudolf Krauss, Giovanni Noe y una instantánea de las enfermedades infecciosas en el Chile de 1930.

When there were giants on the earth, two of them, Rudolf Kraus and Giovanni Noe, met at the ancient Bacteriological Institute of Chile, and founded together a journal representing the principles of the institution. A nostalgic glance over the papers published therein for these so named giants lets us know a little about the study of infectious diseases in the thirties, when tuberculosis and malaria were two of the biggest problems for the world's public health... then and now.

Rudolf Krauss, Giovanni Noe y una instantánea de las enfermedades infecciosas en el Chile de 1930 / Rudolf Krauss, Giovanni Noe and a flash of infectious diseases in Chile, 1930

When there were giants on the earth, two of them, Rudolf Kraus and Giovanni Noe, met at the ancient Bacteriological Institute of Chile, and founded together a journal representing the principles of the institution. A nostalgic glance over the papers published therein for these so named giants lets us know a little about the study of infectious diseases in the thirties, when tuberculosis and malaria were two of the biggest problems for the world’s public health... then and now.

Cuando había gigantes sobre la Tierra, dos de ellos, Rodolfo Kraus y Juan Noé, austriaco el uno e italiano el otro, coincidieron por un tiempo en el antiguo Instituto Bacteriológico de Chile. Tuvieron entonces la idea de crear una revista que representara los fines de la institución y el progreso de la microbiología. Una mirada nostálgica sobre los artículos publicados en dicha revista, nos permite saber un poco sobre el estudio de las enfermedades infecciosas en los años treinta, cuando la tuberculosis y la malaria eran dos de los mayores problemas para salud pública en el mundo... entonces y ahora.

[A tribute to the gender: Devoted wives of intrepid investigators]. / Un tributo al género: abnegadas esposas de intrépidos investigadores.

Starting from the unfortunate words of Nobel Prize Tim Hunt about the presence of women in laboratories, we remember the stories of some devoted wives of intrepid investigators. Surely, more of someone, like Fanny Eilshemius or Mary Elizabeth Steele, never received the merited acknowledgement, working side by side with her husband in the house and in the lab; in a better stage, another one investigated as well as him, in the same or in a different field, like Mary Ethel Hayter Reed or Rebecca Craighill; and, finally and undoubtedly, most of them, being only simple housekeepers, like Emilie de La Salle, Win Warren or Adrienne Marshall, gave moral and kindly support to their men or... making an awful exception, betrayed these bored genius running away with an artist, with or without justification.

[Since Wassermann to VDRL in the ancient Bacteriological Institute of Chile]. / Del Wassermann al VDRL en el antiguo Instituto Bacteriológico de Chile.

The author remembers, sometimes in a very personal and colloquial way, the successive adoption by the ancient Bacteriological Institute of Chile of different nontreponemal tests for the serological diagnosis of syphilis: Wassermann, Kahn and VDRL. The outstanding figures of some agents of those changes, like Rudolf Kraus, Eduardo Dussert and Reuben Kahn, are recreated in the words of first hand eyewitness.