Passado nazista e mudança do nome de uma doença: o caso da doença de Wegener
2012; Elsevier BV; Volume: 52; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1590/s0482-50042012000200014
ISSN1809-4570
Autores Tópico(s)Medical History and Research
ResumoTo name a disease after a physician is a great sign of recognition of his/her work.There are plenty of examples of such a centuries-old practice.One of them is the Alzheimer's disease, which causes memory loss.Another is the Crohn's disease, a chronic intestinal infl ammation named after the famous gastroenterologist Harold Crohn of the Mount Sinai Hospital in Nova York.In 2001, I was one of the rheumatologists to report in the Brazilian Journal of Rheumatology the embarrassment caused in the medical literature by the name attributed to a type of arthritis known as Reiter's syndrome. 1Hans Reiter was discovered to have been a follower of Hitler, the Nazi leader, and to have participated in human experiments at concentration camps.Several medical societies have suggested renaming "Reiter's syndrome" to "reactive arthritis".An infl ammation of the arteries and veins of the lungs, facial sinuses, and kidneys had been identifi ed as a specifi c type of chronic granulomatous infl ammation.In 1937, Friedrich Wegener, pathologist in Berlin, described that disease, which became known as "Wegener's granulomatosis", 2 an autoimmune disorder, in which antibodies attack their host. 3espite the suspicion of his participation and collaboration with the Nazi Medicine, the allies released Wegener due to lack of evidence that he had taken part in Hitlerism.However, subsequent and more recent investigations, conducted by Eric Matteson, a rheumatologist at one of the most prestigious American medical centers, the Mayo Clinic, have shown that Wegener was a dedicated Nazi, who affi liated with the Nazi Party months before Hitler rose to power -differently from other physicians, who had to affi liate with Nazism to continue to practice Medicine.Wegener worked as a military pathologist
Referência(s)