Arthur Cecil Alport,

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...

(1880–1959) was a South African

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

who first identified the

Alport syndrome Alport syndrome is a genetic disorder affecting around 1 in 5,000-10,000 children, characterized by glomerulonephritis, end-stage kidney disease, and hearing loss. Alport syndrome can also affect the eyes, though the changes do not usually affect ...

in a British family in 1927.

Biography

After graduating in medicine from the

University of Edinburgh Medical School The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinar ...

with an MB ChB in 1905, he returned to

Transvaal Colony The Transvaal Colony () was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Second Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the ...

to practice medicine in Johannesburg, where he owned a small gold mine. However, this proved to be non-productive. During World War I Alport served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in South West Africa and in Macedonia and Salonika. After the war Alport received his MD by thesis in 1919 from the

. Alport worked as a specialist in tropical medicine at the Ministry of Pensions, London. From 1922 he worked for fourteen years under professor Frederick Samuel Langmead (1879-1969) as assistant director of the newly established medical unit at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington. On the advice of Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), Dr. Alport, in 1937, went to Cairo to become professor of medicine at the King Fuad I Hospital, University of Cairo. He was appalled by the fraudulent practices of dishonesty and corruption, which he encountered in Egyptian hospitals at the time, but even more so of the neglect of the poor patients, and it was entirely in keeping with his moral integrity that he initiated a crusade of reformation. These conditions were the theme of his book One Hour of Justice: The Black Book of the Egyptian Hospitals, a privately published pamphlet, which he dedicated to the twin gods of decency and justice - and ultimately had the desired effect as a bill for the reform of the Egyptian medical faculty. It was presented to the Legislature in 1944. Alport remained unconvinced that he had succeeded and came to believe that he had been let down by British colleagues. In 1947 this sense of betrayal led him to resign from the fellowship of the

Royal College of Physicians of London The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

. He died in his old hospital in London in 1959, at the age of 79 years. Arthur Cecil Alport grave

References

* ''One Hour of Justice'', Arthur Cecil Alport, 1946, 311p, a denunciation of the living conditions of the Egyptian poor, published in London by Dorothy Crisp & Co Ltd

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alport, Cecil A. 1880 births 1959 deaths 20th-century British medical doctors Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Physicians of St Mary's Hospital, London British tropical physicians Egyptian tropical physicians 20th-century Egyptian physicians