{{Short description|Guatemalan physician and philanthropist}} {{for|the Filipino lawyer and diplomat|Rodolfo Robles (lawyer)}} {{expand Spanish|topic=bio|Rodolfo Robles Valverde||date=September 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Rodolfo Robles | birth_date = January 14, 1878 | birth_place = Quetzaltenango, Guatemala | death_date = {{death date and age|1939|11|8|1878|1|14}} | death_place = Guatemala City, Guatemala | occupation = Physician | known_for = Describing the relationship between ''Onchocerca volvulus'' infection (the causative agent of onchocerciasis, or river blindness) and ocular disease. | spouse = Julia Isabel Herrera Dorion de Robles | children = Rodolfo Robles Herrera | parents = Francisco Robles de Leon, Manuela Trinidad Valverde y Alvarez }}
'''Rodolfo Robles''' (January 14, 1878 – November 8, 1939) was a Guatemalan physician and philanthropist. In 1915, he was the first to describe onchocerciasis in Latin America,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fee|first=W. T.|title=The Epidemic of Filaria-Onchocerca|date=September 1919|journal=California State Journal of Medicine|volume=17|issue=9|pages=327–328|issn=0093-402X|pmc=1594172|pmid=18737994}}</ref> which was known and widespread on the African continent, with the first description of the adult worms made there in 1890 by Sir Patrick Manson.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/synd.cfm/4008.html|website=Whonamedit - A dictionary of medical eponyms|title=Robles' disease|access-date=15 October 2024}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Klein|first1=Robert|last2=Richards|first2=Frank|last3=Rios|first3=Dalila|last4=Crovella Valdez|first4=Carol Guillermina|last5=Cupp|first5=Ed|last6=Domínguez|first6=Alfredo|last7=Hassan|first7=Hassan K.|last8=de Leon|first8=Oscar|last9=Diaz Espinoza|first9=Carlos Enrique|last10=Monroy|first10=Zoraida Morales|last11=Eberhard|first11=Mark|date=2015-12-09|title=One Hundred Years After Its Discovery in Guatemala by Rodolfo Robles, ''Onchocerca volvulus'' Transmission Has Been Eliminated from the Central Endemic Zone|journal=The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene|language=en|volume=93|issue=6|pages=1295–1304|doi=10.4269/ajtmh.15-0364|issn=0002-9637|pmc=4674249|pmid=26503275}}</ref> Robles was the first person to describe the etiology of the disease, correctly attributing it to infection with ''Onchocerca volvulus'' parasites.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Diccionario histórico biográfico de Guatemala|date=2004|publisher=Fundación para la Cultura y el Desarrollo, Asociación de Amigos del País|last=Rojas Lima|first=Flavio|isbn=99922-44-01-1|edition=First|location=Guatemala|oclc=58734025}} {{page number needed|date=October 2024}}</ref> He discerned the etiology from clinical observations among coffee plantation workers in Guatemala, extracting the parasitic worm from a nodule on a child's face.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> The disease was later referred to as "Roble's disease" in his honor.<ref name=":2" /> In the 1930s, Robles also played a role in establishing the first public health campaigns to address onchocerciasis in the Central Endemic Zone of Guatemala, which involved sending teams to endemic areas to provide surgical services and perform nodulectomies.<ref name=":1" />
==Biography== Rodolfo Robles was born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Rodolfo Robles Valverde|url=https://medicina.ufm.edu/personaje/rodolfo-robles-valverde/|access-date=2020-06-18|website=Facultad de Medicina - Universidad Francisco Marroquín|language=es}}</ref> As a young man, he was sent to school in the United States, returning to complete high school at the Instituto Nacional para Varones de Occidente (INVO) in 1894.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|date=2015-02-27|title=Rodolfo Robles|url=https://wikiguate.com.gt/rodolfo-robles/|access-date=2020-06-18|website=WikiGuate|language=es}}</ref> He completed pre-university studies at Rouen, in France, before studying medicine in Paris and earning his degree from the University of Paris in 1904.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /> He performed research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he obtained the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (French: "National Order of the Legion of Honour") in the degree of ''Grand Officier'' (Grand Officer).
Robles married Julia Isabel Herrera Dorión in 1914,<ref name=":3" /> and had one child, Rodolfo Robles Herrera, born in Paris in 1928.
He served as a professor in the Faculty of Medical Sciences for many years.<ref name=":2" />
== Honors and tributes == Robles has been honored in Guatemala and Mexico with many schools and hospitals named in his honor, including a hospital in his hometown of Quetzaltenango as well as a hospital focused on eye and ear health in Guatemala City.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-08-11|title=Rodolfo Robles|url=https://www.hagomitarea.com/rodolfo-robles/investigaciones/historia-geografia-y-ciencias-sociales/estudios-sociales/|access-date=2020-06-18|website=Hago mi Tarea|language=es}}</ref>
In 1955, the Order of Rodolfo Robles was established as award to recognize physicians for outstanding service in the field of public health.<ref>[http://www.medals.org.uk/guatemala/guatemala007.htm Guatemala: Order of Rodolfo Robles]</ref>
A statue of his likeness can be found outside the old Faculty of Medical Sciences at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Monumento al Doctor Rodolfo Robles Valverde|url=http://cultura.muniguate.com/index.php/component/content/article/106-robles/645-robles|access-date=2020-06-18|website=cultura.muniguate.com}}</ref>
A bridge over the Suchiate River, which forms the border between the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Guatemalan department of San Marcos, has been named Puente Rodolfo Robles in his honor.
== See also == * Puente Rodolfo Robles
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Robles, Rodolfo}} Category:1878 births Category:1939 deaths Category:University of Paris alumni Category:People from Quetzaltenango Category:Guatemalan medical doctors Category:Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour Category:Guatemalan philanthropists
{{Guatemala-bio-stub}} Category:Epidemiologists