Rodolfo Robles

Rodolfo Robles (1878–1939) was a Guatemalan physician and philanthropist. In 1915, he was the first to describe onchocerciasis in Latin America, which was known and widespread on the African continent and first described in 1890 by Sir Patrick Manson. Robles was the first person to describe the etiology of the disease, correctly attributing it to infection with Onchocerca volvulus parasites. 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. The disease was later referred to as "Roble's disease" in his honor. 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.