Vital Brazil

Vital Brazil Mineiro da Campanha, known as Vital Brazil (Portuguese pronunciation: [vitaɫ bɾaziɫ]; April 28, 1865 in Campanha, Minas Gerais, Brazil – May 8, 1950) was a Brazilian physician, biomedical scientist and immunologist, internationally renowned for the discovery of the polyvalent anti-ophidic serum used to treat bites of venomous snakes of the Crotalus, Bothrops and Elaps genera. He went on to be also the first to develop anti-scorpion and anti-spider serums. He was the founder of the Butantan Institute, a research center located in São Paulo, which was the first in the world dedicated exclusively to basic and applied toxicology, the science of venomous animals.

Vital Brazil was born on April 28, 1865, in the town of Campanha, in the state of Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil. His father gave him this curious name in homage to the country, the state and the city where he was born.

He graduated in Medicine in 1891, in Rio de Janeiro, working as a technical assistant in the chair of Physiology in order to pay for his tuition and living expenses. After graduating, he began work in public health, initially as a sanitary inspector in São Paulo (1892–1895), where he acquired experience in the prevalent epidemic diseases of the time (smallpox, typhoid fever, yellow fever and cholera), and then as a private practitioner in the city of Botucatu, from 1895 to 1896.

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