Jacinto con vit biography for kids

On May 12, 2014, Jacinto Convit, MD, died in Caracas, Venezuela at the age of 100. Dr. Convit was a major figure in the history of leprosy and parasitology research. Although best known for his fundamental and lasting contributions to the study of Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy (Hansen's disease), his impact on research into many parasitic agents and the field of immunotherapy was significant.

Dr. Convit's professional career covered a period of over 70 years. It began in 1938 when he received his doctorate of medicine degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. At that time his home country of Venezuela was a rural, poor, and disease-ridden country in which any person suspected of suffering from Hansen's disease was stigmatized and condemned to isolation. The conditions under which these patients were confined at Leprosaria, together with Convit's extraordinary human sensitivity, played a key role in his lifelong crusade against stigmatization of leprosy patients. At age 23, in the era where no cure was available for this feared disease, Convit (Figure 1) decided to devote his life to developing a cure for these patients and decided to move into one of the largest leprosaria of Venezuela, the Leprosy Clinic of “Cabo Blanco.” His first goal was to end prejudice and exclusion condemning this disease, an objective that he achieved soon after taking over the National Directorate of Leprocomiums, when he convinced the government to free the patients from isolation. His work helped change the leprosy control measures in Venezuela, replacing compulsory isolation with ambulatory treatment.

During these tough years, Dr. Convit also volunteered as a physician in other leprosy clinics around the country and devoted a great amount of time to study the diverse clinical and epidemiological aspects of leprosy. He managed to inspire and form a small team of medical students, pharmacists, and nurses th

"He had a passion to deal with two of the most stigmatised diseases in the world - leprosy and a parasite called leishmaniasis. And he devoted his life to finding ways to improve the health of people who, for much of the world and much of the world of science, had been forgotten."

In his later years, Convit worked on finding a cure for cancer.

Born in 1913 of a Spanish immigrant family and educated at a university in Caracas, Convit was moved by the stigmatisation of leprosy patients and worked with them in the marginalised outskirts of the city as well as remote jungle areas.

Convit combined existing tuberculosis treatment and a bacteria found in armadillos to design a new vaccination against leprosy.

But scientists are still working to perfect a vaccine that could help eradicate leprosy for good.

Untreated, the disease, caused by a bacterium transmitted through coughs and sneezes, can render progressive and permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes.

The global prevalence of leprosy has decreased considerably in recent years - the World Health Organization (WHO) target of reducing leprosy to less than one case per 10,000 people globally was met in 2000.

Venezuelan physician and scientist

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Convit and the second or maternal family name is García.

Jacinto Convit García (11 September 1913 – 12 May 2014) was a Venezuelan physician and scientist, known for developing a vaccine to prevent leprosy and his studies to treat cancer. He played a role in founding Venezuela's National Institute of Biomedicine and held many leprosy-related positions. Among Convit's many honors for his work on leprosy and tropical diseases was Spain's Prince of Asturias Award in the Scientific and Technical Research category and France's Legion of Honor. In 1988, Convit was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his experimental anti-leprosy vaccine.

Biography

The son of Francesc Convit i Martí, a Spaniard from the region of Catalonia who was a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, Jacinto Convit García was born in La Pastora, Libertador Municipality, Caracas in 1913. His mother was Flora García Marrero, a Venezuelan with Canarian roots.

Convit began his studies in the Caracas School and continued in the Andrés Bello lyceum. He was a pupil of Rómulo Gallegos in philosophy and mathematics. Inspired by people with leprosy, he entered medical school at Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in 1932. He

Caracas, Venezuela, age 100

Dr. Jacinto Convit died on May 12th, 2014, just a few months short of his 101st birthday, at his home in Caracas Venezuela. Dr. Convit, who was honored as a "Hero of Public Health" by the Pan American Health Organization, located in Washington DC, in 2002, was a world-renowned expert in leprosy (Hansen's Disease) and tropical diseases. His work at Venezuela's Biomedicine Institute, which he founded in 1972, resulted in the development of an experimental model for leprosy. The work toward the development of a vaccine for the prevention and cure of leprosy provided the basis for an immunotherapy for leishmaniasis. These investigations led to his nomination by the Venezuelan government for the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988. Dr. Convit was director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Reference and Research in Histological Detection and Classification of Leprosy. In 1987 he was honored by Spain with the Prince of Asturias Award for his dedication and research into the prevention and treatment of leprosy, leishmaniasis, oncocercosis and mycosis, and other diseases affecting Latin America. He received many additional honors and awards from numerous countries, including the Order of the National Legion of Honor from France in 2011.

Dr. Convit's active career spanned more than seventy-five years. Early in his career, he was drawn to research that led him to investigate the medical conditions of patients in remote areas of Venezuela accessible only by horse and mule, through paths in the Andes Mountains, and later among indigenous peoples of the Amazon jungle and the Orinoco Delta. He strove to bring the fruits of his investigations to alleviate the hard lives of the populations stricken by diseases which then had little if any treatments.

He recognized the need to establish in Venezuela a research facility dedicated to investigating tropical pathogens