Franklin A. Neva (<img src="/img/revistas/rsbmt/v45n2/a34est.jpg" width="21" height="22"align="texttop">1922 †2011)

Abstract

, he had begun to work with T. cruzi and this occasioned his spending six months in 1964 with his family in Salvador, Bahia, where he worked with Professor Aluizio Prata. At the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases he studied the biology of parasites as well as the human immune response to parasitic infections including leishmaniasis, Chagas' disease, malaria and strongyloidiasis. Moreover, more than 20 young Brazilian investigators were trained in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases under his orientation or supervised by outstanding scientists he hired at NIAID, including Alan Sher, Ted Nash, Tom Nuttman and David Sacks.Our first collaboration was in the 70's evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of a serologic test for strongyloidiasis. In the 80's Dr Neva proposed that we develop a collaboration Project on HTLV-1 and strongyloidiasis. He had been one of the first investigators to describe the increased susceptibility of people infected with HTLV-1 to develop recurrent strongyloidiasis as well as disseminated strongyloidiasis. This fruitful collaboration resulted in 13 manuscripts about the immunological response and clinical consequences of the association between HTLV-1 and intestinal helminths, including: 1) characterizing the immune response in subjects infected with HTLV-1; 2) observing that the exaggerated type 1 immune response observed in HTLV-1 infection decreases the type 2 immune response to Strongyloides stercoralis; 3) demonstrating that these abnormalities were the reason for the increased susceptibility for strongyloidiasis among HTLV-1 infected subjects; 4) demonstrating that HTLV-1 decreases the efficacy of anti-parasitic drugs in patients with strongyloidiasis; 5) describing the influence of HTLV-1 in the clinical manifestations of schistosomiasis; and 6) describing the ability of helminths to modify the immunologic response in HTLV-1 infected individuals. This collaboration was also one important factor in my starting the HTLV-1 multidisciplinary clinic at the Hospital Universitário Prof. Edgard Santos that has followed more than 700 HTLV-1 infected patients.Just as important as this excellent collaboration was the solid friendship that we built during these more than 10 years that we worked together. Dr. Neva was a kind and patient gentleman as well as a researcher who was ever passionate about improving the quality of life for patients who suffer from parasitic diseases.