Un capítulo de la influencia francesa en la medicina peruana: Ernesto Odriozola y la Enfermedad de Carrión

• Main Author: Marcos Cueto
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Institut Français d'Études Andines 2007-05-01
• Series: Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Études Andines
• Subjects: history of the medicine; Carrion’s Disease; Peruvian verruga; University of San Marcos
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/bifea/4561
• ISSN: 0303-7495; 2076-5827

During the turn of the 20th century, French clinical medicine and European medical geography had a strong, and little studied, influence among Peruvian physicians. The goals of this paper are to analyze to an important instance of this influence and to highlight local developments influencing its reception, such as nationalism and the search for international academic visibility by publishing in French. Peruvian physicians emphasized the uniqueness of the health and disease environment of the Andes, especially with regards to a bacterial disease called Carrión´s Disease (today better known as bartonellosis). The origin of the name of the disease can be traced to the sacrifice of a Peruvian medical student in the late nineteenth century who experimented in his own body the symptoms of a disease popularly known as Verruga Peruana. Carrión died in his attempt and rapidly became the symbol of the emerging tradition of professional medicine. Ernesto Odriozola, a classmate of Carrion who pursued graduate studies in France, published the first comprehensive study on the history, geographical distribution, and medical treatment of the disease in Paris. His book rapidly became a landmark in Peruvian medicine and its author Dean of the School of Medicine of the University of San Marcos. His work also provides some clues for understanding the practice of Western medicine in a society marked by ethnic and cultural differences.