Dr. José Egidio Fabiani, who distinguished himself within HAE in his native Argentina as well as in Latin America, passed away earlier this year.
In a eulogy Alejandra Menendez, President of HAE Argentina, writes:
“Dr. José Egidio Fabiani was the initial engine for the development of the study and treatment of HAE in Argentina. Those of us who have had the pleasure of meeting him know of his constant struggle and dedication throughout his life for the knowledge of this disease. When many still disbelieved the disease, with his perseverance and tenacity, Dr. Fabiani gradually managed to transcend borders to the rest of Latin America. The lives of many of us would not have been the same if we had not had the fortune to cross his path and get the diagnosis of HAE.
It is very difficult personally to find the words for a goodbye after so many years of shared work, talks, discussions, and projects. I have enormous, sincere gratitude and appreciation for the man who started the fight for HAE in our country. I witnessed his great satisfaction at seeing the incredible advances in the field of HAE in recent years and his passion for continuing collaborating on the cause to which he dedicated his life.
Dr. Fabiani always expressed his enormous pride in having been the first to describe HAE in Argentina and Latin America. The photo of the newspaper article is a testimony of his lifetime commitment as it marks his beginnings with HAE. Far away and a long time ago; what a great achievement. How not to be grateful?!
We will miss him, and we will always remember him with great affection, admiration and respect. People only die the day they are forgotten, and you, Dr. Fabiani, will hardly be forgotten.”
As Dr. Fabiani stated (in Spanish) on his LinkedIn profile regarding the HAE situation in South America: “Unfortunately there is a lack of knowledgeable doctors, lack of laboratories for diagnosis and almost all countries have Danazol as the only treatment. Governments must take an interest; patients must act and defend their rights in each country, they must not allow themselves to be discriminated against. Indeed, HAE is a disease with the lowest cost of treatment within rare diseases.”
Dr. Fabiani was MD (Allergy and Immunology) from Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina 1963-1969, and from 1970 onwards he worked tirelessly as a consultant on HAE in Argentina and Latin America. From 1972 to 1976 he worked at Hospital Finochietto in Argentina (Allergy and Immunology), followed by Hospital Italiano Buenos Aires, Argentina (Allergy and Immunology) until 1979. From then and until 2014 Dr. Fabiani worked at Instituto Argentino de Alergia Inmunologia Buenos Aires where he diagnosed the first HAE patients in 1979. He was the co-founder of Instituto Argentino de Alergia in the 1970ies, and from 2014 he was the President and founder of Asociacion Latinoamericana de Angioedema Hereditario (ALaeh).
