Abstract

SERRANO-BARRERA, Orlando Rafael; LASTRE GONZALEZ, Miriam  and  PEREZ MARTIN, Oliver. Contributions of Moises and Alejandro Chediak to Immunology, Hematology and Clinical Laboratory in Cuba. Rev Cubana Hematol Inmunol Hemoter [online]. 2019, vol.35, n.2, e961.  Epub Aug 30, 2019. ISSN 0864-0289.

Doctors Moises and Alejandro Chediak Ahuayda, whose were born in Cuba and had Lebanese ascendants, made important contributions to Immunology and other medical sciences. Doctor Moises Chediak was director of the Central Clinical Laboratory of the “General Calixto Garcia” Hospital from 1940, the same year when he founded the first blood bank in Cuba. He was Associate Professor of Microscopy and Clinical Chemistry at the University of Havana. The first report in Cuba of a case of Cooley’s anemia in a child, and a new form of a primary immunodeficiency, known as Beguez-Chediak-Higashi syndrome, were among his most relevant papers. He participated in many congressesin America, Europe and Asia; he was an outstanding member of the Cuban Societies of Clinical Pathology, Microbiology and Pediatrics, as well as various international organizations. Alejandro Chediak got the attention of the scientific community when he developed a method that required only a drop of blood in a paper for the serological diagnostics of syphilis. Chediak’s microrreaction was widely evaluated, adopted and modified in the United States, Argentina, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and France. He designed a device useful for many laboratory assays, including blood group agglutination, patented in Cuba and the United States. He was professor of Biological Physics at the Faculty of Medicineof theUniversity of Havana. The brothers Chediak Ahuayda, who were trained and obtained their most important professional achievements in our country, have a relevant place in the history of Cuban medicine during XX century.

Keywords : history of medicine; primary immunodeficiency; Chediak-Higashi syndrome; Beguez-Chediak-Higashi syndrome; clinical laboratory; syphilis.

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