He was among the first in the world to develop a test to detect HIV infection early and immediately flush out the AIDS disease. Professor Giuseppe Valguarnera, a specialist in Hygiene and former head of Clinical Pathology at the Ingrassia Hospital, died at the age of 96.
Valguarnera, born in Palermo in 1926, who was also an assistant of the Clinical Pathology laboratory of the Civic Hospital of Palermo, was a pioneer of AIDS research at an international level. He was the first to delineate the antibody serological map and that of the viral antigens involved in the various stages of HIV infection. Author of over one hundred scientific publications also in the field of cancer, he discovered that caffeine could be a sensitizer if combined with radioactive and cytostatic agents in the therapy of experimental and human skin cancers.
In 1948, as a university student, he demonstrated for the first time that ddt-resistant flies belonged to the female sex, thus laying the foundations for the inheritance of the characters “sensitivity” and “resistance”. With the entomologist Mariani, he experimented with new means and methods for the biological evaluation of insecticides.
Graduated in Medicine and Surgery with full marks and honors, he has practiced the profession for over 70 years. Professor of Bacteriology, Virology and Immunology at the professional nursing school of the Civic Hospital, but what will not be forgotten for is the important research carried out in the field of AIDS. Together with his team of collaborators, he developed an immunoenzymatic method (a test capable of detecting the possible presence of antibodies or antigens in a sample) to reveal the presence of IgM class antibodies in HIV infection as an early serological sign (he was therefore the first to complete the IgM-IgG serological map in HIV infection). For this reason he obtained the patent at the request of Immune Pharmacology Reasearch.
A professor of the old school who studied an infection (HIV infection) by heart, which is still at times unknown today. He was the first, also this time, to identify the decrease of some lymphocytes in the progression of the disease. An important discovery because it made it possible to create a scale which, starting from normal values, still allows today to know the most serious stages of AIDS. Councilor for 6 years of the Unuci of Palermo where he gave several conferences on military issues, he had many interests beyond medicine. In fact, he was even a manufacturer and pilot of radio-controlled model aircraft.