Pittella José Eymard Homem
Departamento de Anatomia Patológica e Medicina Legal, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG.
Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2009 Jan-Feb;42(1):67-72. doi: 10.1590/s0037-86822009000100014.
One of the greatest achievements in the history of medicine was the description of Chagas disease by the physician and scientist Carlos Chagas. A hundred years after the discovery of the disease, speculation still remains regarding the two official nominations of Carlos Chagas for the Nobel Prize, the biggest worldwide scientific award, in 1913 and in 1921. It has been accepted that the reason why the prize was not awarded to this brilliant scientist may have been the strong opposition that he faced in Brazil, from some physicians and researchers of that time. They went as far as questioning the existence of Chagas disease, thereby possibly influencing the decision of the Nobel Committee not to award the prize to him. Analysis of the database of the Nobel prize archives, with the revelation of the names of nominators, nominees and prizewinners spanning the years 1901-1951, brought information not only about what was considered to be a scientific achievement at that time, but also about who the important scientists were and what the relationships between them were. The non-recognition of Carlos Chagas' discoveries by the Nobel Committee appears to be more correctly explained by these factors than by the negative impact of the local opposition.
医学史上最伟大的成就之一是医生兼科学家卡洛斯·查加斯对恰加斯病的描述。在该疾病被发现一百年后，关于卡洛斯·查加斯在1913年和1921年两次获得全球最大科学奖项——诺贝尔奖的官方提名，猜测仍然存在。人们普遍认为，这位杰出科学家未能获奖的原因可能是他在巴西遭到了当时一些医生和研究人员的强烈反对。他们甚至质疑恰加斯病的存在，从而可能影响了诺贝尔委员会不授予他该奖项的决定。对诺贝尔奖档案数据库的分析，揭示了1901年至1951年间提名者、被提名者和获奖者的名字，这不仅带来了当时被视为科学成就的信息，还让人们了解到重要科学家是谁以及他们之间的关系。诺贝尔委员会未认可卡洛斯·查加斯的发现，用这些因素来解释似乎比当地反对意见的负面影响更为合理。
