Carlo Urbani - Definition

Carlo Urbani (October 19, 1956 - March 29, 2003) was an Italian physician and the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as a new disease. Urbani was the president of the Italian chapter of Médecins Sans Frontières and was one of the individuals who accepted the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of that organization.

Urbani received his doctorate of medicine from the University of Ancona. He was employed by the World Health Organization and was based in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he mainly worked on combatting parasitic diseases. After he had identified an outbreak of the previously unknown SARS among Vietnam hospital workers in late February 2003, Urbani apparently became infected himself. He travelled to a conference in Bangkok, Thailand on March 11 and fell ill there. He died in Bangkok of the disease at the age of 46. He was married and had three children.

External links

• Donald G. McNeil Jr.: Disease's Pioneer Is Mourned as a Victim (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/science/sciencespecial/08PROF.html), The New York Times, April 8, 2003