Vital Brazil

Vital Brazil Mineiro da Campanha (b. April 28, 1865 in Campanha, Minas Gerais, Brazil, d. May 8, 1950)was a Brazilian physician, biomedical scientist and immunologist, internationally reknowned for the discovery of the polyvalent anti-ophidic serum used to treat bítes of venomous snakes of the Crotalus (rattlesnakes) and genera. He went on to be also the first to develop anti-scorpion and anti-snake serums. He was the founder of the Butantan Institute, a research center located in São Paulo, which was the first in the world dedicated exclusively to basic and applied toxinology, the science of venomonous animals.

Life

Vital Brazil was born on April 28, 1865, in the little town of Campanha, in the states of Minas Gerais. His father gave him this curious name in homage to the country, the state and the city where they lived. He was graduated in medicine in 1891, in Rio de Janeiro, working as a technicala assistant in the chair of Physiology in order to pay for his tuition and living. After graduation, he started to work in public health, initially as a sanitary inspector in São Paulo (1892 to 1895), where he acquired experience in the prevalent epidemic diseases of the time (smallpox~, typhoid fever, yellow fever and cholera, and then as a private practitioner in the city of Botucatu, from 1895 to 1896.

Vital Brazil, however, was attracted by medical research in the growing fields of bacteriology, virology and immunology at the end of the 19th century, which were being fueled by the great discoveris in Europe, by Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Paul Ehrlich and many others. He therefore returned to São Paulo in 1897 and accepted a position in the Instituto Bacteriológico de São Paulo (Bacteriological Institute of São Paulo), under direction of the great Brazilian pathologist and epidemiologist Adolfo Lutz. There, he worked on the preparation of sera against several diseases, particularly the bubonic plague, to which he fell gravely ill, fortunately surviving it. Due to his outstanding work, the government of São Paulo founded a new Serum Therapy Institute in 1901 and gave its direction to Vital Brazil. He also founded the Institute of Hyginene, Serum Therapy and Veterinary Medicine, in the city of Niterói, in 1919.

The new São Paulo Institute was built in a section of the city named Butantan, at the time a far-away place, near the Pinheiros river, a swampy, sparsely inhabited area. Under Vital Brazil, it soon became an energetic and exemplary research center in vaccines and sera of all kinds, which were produced locally for the prophylaxis and treament of tetanus, diphteria, yellow fever, smallpox and several zoonoses, such as the dreaded. The Institute came to be well known by his original nickname, the Butantan Institute, in active and in existence till today.

Vital Brazil was convinced since his early work at Butantan, that envenomations (poisoning by accidents with venomous animals, such as snakes, scorpions, spiders and batrachia, then the cause of thousands of deaths in enormous, rural Brazil, which teemed with such tropical beasts) could be fought with antisera, i.e., antibodies specifically produced for venoms which were proteins or long-chain peptides.

However, his most important work was the fight against ophidism and his studies on the snake, scorpion and spider venoms, the preparation of specific sera against the snake (1901), scorpion (1908) and spider (1925) venoms. He also studied the cutaneous batrachian venoms(1925). The most original and successful work of vital Brazil was the fight against ophidism and animal venoms, where he set a model of treatment for all America and one of the best of the world. Vital Brazil proved the specificity of the antivenomous sera, as he showed that the antitoxic sera prepared against the Asiatic poisons were inefficient against the poisons of the South America snakes. He obtained specific sera against the latter and showed that there are three types of clinical poisoning by the venoms of Bothrops, Crotalus and Elaps, the symptoms of which can be treated with specific sera. There are some commom ones to the poison of the Bothrops and the antipoisonous serum against one species has paraspecific effect up to a certain point on the poison of other Bothrops. The serum against venomof our South American Crotalus has a certain paraspecific effect against the venom of the North American Crotalus. These knowledges made Butantan prepare several sera monovalent antibothropic, polyvalent antibothropic, antiophidic for Central America, anticrotalic, antielapidic. The more commonly used sera are two: anticrotalic and antiophidic prepared against the venom of Bothrops and Crotalus durissus terrificus.

To obtain the venom necessary to prepare these sera a great number of serpents were needed. The Institute established an exchange system, delivering one ampule of serum for each snake specimen sent by the farmers. These were given also a snare to capture the snakes and a wooden box to ship them. The railroads carry them for free. This method was also tried in Argentine, however at present an additional amount is paid in money for each snake received. The serumtherapy is responsible for a decrease in mortality. Of 20,000 men bitten each year, the mortality decreased from 25-30% to a mere 2%, and these due to late or insufficient treatment.

The work of vital Brazil was continued by his collaborators and followers. The zoological classification of the serpents initiated by J. F. Gomes was act complished principally by Afranio do Amaral. The chemical identification of the active components by Slotta, Fraenkel Conrat, Moura Gonçalves, Diniz and Klobusitzky; the physiological action was studied by Vellard, Oswaldo, Vital Brazil, Rosenberg and others. Vital Brazil and his collaborators have studied several actions of the venoms coagulant, anticoagulant, hemolytic, agglutinant, cytologic, proteolytic, etc. The liberation of bradikinin was shown by Rocha e Silva, Beraldo and Rosenberg. The poisons contain numerous enzymes which have been isolated and studied with interest in all parts since they explain many of the symptoms and constitute interesting biochemical reactives, Vital Brazil diffused the prophytactic measures and studied the ophiophage serpents, such as the "muçurana", the ophiophage mammals, such as the skunk like Conepatus chilensis and others, the ophiophage birds and certain spiders. The scorpion venom was studied since 1907 by Maurano, Magalhães and Diniz. The antiscorpionic serum is being prepared in Butantan since 1916. The action of the spider venoms were studied by Vital Brazil, Vellard and Bücherl. Since 1925 are being prepared in butantan atilicosic and antictenidic sera against the venom of Ctenus, today Phoneutria. The action of the poison of the Latrodectus has been studied in Argentine by Troise, Sampayo and under the influence of Abalos, the antilatrodectic serum was prepared by Pirosky. The venom of Loxosceles and its antiserum has been investigated mainly by Machiavello, Gajardo-Tobar and the staff of Butantan. The action of the cutaneous frog and other batrachian venoms has been studied by the Vital Brazil, Jayme Pereira and Vellard.

Vital Brazil undertook two travels to Europe (1904 and 1914) in order to get acquainted with progresses in his speciality. Ins 1915 he was invited by the Carnegie Foundation for the improvement of peace, to visit the United States. There he was summoned to treat an employee of the Bronx Zoo, who had been bitten by a Crotalus atrox and presented grave symptoms; Vital Brazil injected anticrotalic serum of Butantan, with which a swift recovery was secured, this showing the paraspecific action of this serum. He published many papers and gave numerous lectures to diffuse knowledge on serumtherapy against snake poisons and to organize collaboration by the people for the prophilaxis and to secure shipment of snakes and distribution of sera. He also published scientific papers; his book "La défense contre l’ophidisme" published in French in 1914, attained international repercussion with three editions.