- Carlo Urbani
Carlo Urbani (
Castelplanio ,Italy October 19 ,1956 –Bangkok ,Thailand March 29 ,2003 ) was an Italianphysician and the first to identifysevere acute respiratory syndrome (SARS ) as a new and dangerously contagious disease. His early warning to theWorld Health Organization (WHO) touched off a massive response that probably helped save the lives of millions of people around the world.In 2003, Urbani was called in to The French Hospital of Hanoi to look at patient Johnny Chen, an American businessman who had fallen ill with what doctors thought was a bad case of the flu. Urbani realized that Chen did not have the flu, but that what he did have was probably new and highly contagious. Urbani immediately notified WHO, triggering the most effective response to a major epidemic in history. Urbani persuaded the Vietnamese Health Ministry to begin isolating patients and screening travelers, thus slowing the early pace of the epidemic. On March 11, he flew from Hanoi to a conference in
Bangkok ,Thailand and fell ill with SARS while on the plane. A colleague who met him at the airport called an ambulance. After 18 days of intensive care in aBangkok hospital, his wife only able to speak to him through an intercom, Urbani died at the age of 46.Urbani received his
medical degree from theUniversity of Ancona and worked for a time as ageneral practitioner , before starting a career ininfectious diseases . He was a past president of the Italian chapter ofMédecins Sans Frontières and was one of the individuals who accepted the 1999Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of that organization. He was employed by theWorld Health Organization and based inHanoi ,Vietnam , where he mainly worked on combatting parasitic diseases, but was generally expert on infectious diseases. He was married and had three children.His life and professional experience have been narrated by former WHO colleagues
Marco Albonico andLorenzo Savioli in the book "Le malattie dimenticate" ("Neglected diseases ") published byFeltrinelli in 2004.External links
* Donald G. McNeil Jr.: " [http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/science/sciencespecial/08PROF.html Disease's Pioneer Is Mourned as a Victim] ", The New York Times, April 8, 2003
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