Luís da Câmara Pestana

Luís da Câmara Pestana

Luís da Câmara Pestana (born October 28, 1863 in Funchal , † November 15, 1899 in Lisbon ) was a hygienist and Portuguese university professor who stood out as one of the pioneers of bacteriology . He received his doctorate in 1889 at the Medical Surgical School of Lisbon with the dissertation O Micróbio do Carcinoma ("The microbe of carcinoma"). In 1890 he was appointed professor of hygiene, forensic medicine and pathological anatomy at the same institution and was also a surgeon at various Lisbon hospitals. In 1892 he founded the Instituto de Bacteriologia de Lisboa ("Bacteriological Institute of Lisbon"), which still bears his name today. He died young as a victim of the plague epidemic he fought in the city of Porto.

Luís da Câmara Pestana became famous for proving that the Bacillus isolated during the Lisbon epidemic in 1894 was not Vibrio cholerae ; thereby establishing himself as an authority on hygiene and public health. He was a member of several national and international scientific committees and published numerous works on medical topics, including Rabies in Portugal (1896 in collaboration with Miguel Bombarda ) and Bacteriological Studies on the Lisbon Epidemic of 1894 (1898).

The Bacteriological Institute of Lisbon awards a prize called Prémio Luís da Câmara Pestana for merits in microbiology.