Ettore Marchiafava

Ettorre Marchiafava

Born	(1847-01-15)15 January 1847 Rome, Italy
Died	22 October 1935(1935-10-22) (aged 88) Rome
Citizenship	Italy
Nationality	Italian
Fields	Medicine Pathology Neurology
Institutions	Royal University of Rome
Alma mater	Royal University of Rome
Known for	Marchiafava-Bignami disease Marchiafava's postpneumonic triad Strübing-Marchiafava-Micheli syndrome Etiology of malaria Genus name Plasmodium
Notable awards	Manson Medal (1926)
Author abbrev. (zoology)	Marchiafava
Children	John and Ricardo

Ettore Marchiafava (3 January 1847 – 22 October 1935) was an Italian physician, pathologist and neurologist. He spent most of his career as professor of medicine at the University of Rome (now Sapienza Università di Roma). His works on malaria laid down the foundation for modern malariology. He and Angelo Celli were the first to elucidate living malarial parasites in human blood, and able to distinguish the protozoan parasites responsible for tertian and benign malaria. In 1885 they gave the formal scientific name Plasmodium for these parasites. They also discovered meningococcus as the causative agent of cerebral and spinal meningitis. Marchiafava was the first to describe syphilitic cerebral arteritis and degeneration of brain in an alcoholic patient, which is now eponymously named Marchiafava's disease. He gave a complete description of a genetic disease of blood now known Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria or sometimes Strübing-Marchiafava-Micheli syndrome, in honour of the pioneer scientists. He was personal physician to three successive popes and also to House of Savoy. In 1913 he was elected to Senate of the Kingdom of Italy. He founded the first Italian anti-tuberculosis sanatorium at Rome. He was elected member of the Accademia dei Lincei, becoming its Vice-president in 1933.