Cecilio Félix Romaña (1899–1997 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

) was an Argentinian

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 ...

remembered for describing Romaña's sign, as he was the first to describe the phenomenon. Romaña's sign is a medical term for the unilateral painless periorbital swelling associated with the acute stage of Chagas' disease. Romaña's Sign should not be confused with a chagoma. He researched

tropical disease Tropical diseases are Infectious disease, diseases that are prevalent in or unique to tropics, tropical and subtropics, subtropical regions. The diseases are less prevalent in temperate climates, due in part to the occurrence of a cold season, whic ...

s from 1930 to 1960 in Northern Argentina, particularly

Chagas disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical parasitic disease caused by ''Trypanosoma cruzi''. It is spread mostly by insects in the subfamily ''Triatominae'', known as "kissing bugs". The symptoms change over the cou ...

. His description of his eponymous sign in 1935 allowed for earlier and easier diagnosis of this disease in endemic areas. In 1942 he became the first director of the Regional Institute of Medicine at the

National University of the Northeast The National University of the Northeast (Spanish: ''Universidad Nacional del Nordeste'', UNNE) is an Argentine national university. It is located in the cities of Corrientes and Resistencia, capital cities of the Provinces of Corrientes and Ch ...

.Regional Institute of Medicine
National University of the Northeast

References

External links

Argentine tropical physicians 1899 births 1997 deaths Chagas disease {{Argentina-med-bio-stub