[Contribution of Achille Breda to the understanding of American mucocutaneous leishmaniasis].

The majority of Parasitology textbooks and reference lists on Leishmaniasis do not quote the name of Achille Breda. This Italian dermatologist (1850-1934) however must be considered the first who clinically identified and carefully described the American muco-cutaneous Leishmaniasis, a disease for which some scientists proposed the name of "Breda's disease" (Jeanselme, 1910). Breda studied at the University of Padua, attending as postgraduate the famous Hebra's school of Wien. He became professor of "Syphilodermatopathology" in 1878 and during 47 years taught in Padua. He never was in South or Central America, but studied the illness in Padua itself, in 18 Italian emigrants who had come back ill from the São Paulo region, Brazil. At that time the agents of yaws, cutaneous and muco-cutaneous leishmaniasis and syphilis had not yet discovered and there was great confusion about the granulomatous lesions of the skin and mucosae seen in tropical areas. In this situation he exactly differentiated the condition from syphilis, yaws and lupus and could affirm, with the security of a highly skilled observer that it was an autonomous, different illness, peculiar to some rural areas of Brazil, non contagious directly, appearing in determinate season of the year but lasting for years and often conducting the subjects to the cachexia. His description of the symptomatology, post-morten anatomy, histology and his epidemiological observations, even nowadays represent one of the most accurate and complete pictures of this illesss. Breda's life and works are here reviewed and some passages of his papers on mucocutaneous leishmaniasis reported.