Salvador Mazza was a prominent Argentinean physician and epidemiologist widely recognised for the efforts and decisive steps he took in controlling the tropical parasitic disease called Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis among the rural and poor people of early 20th century South America. A graduate from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) School of Medicine, Mazza specialized in microbiology and pathology and obtained his degree of Doctor of Medicine. While studying the crisis of contagious disease in the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, Mazza met noted Brazilian epidemiologist Carlos Chagas, who discovered American trypanosomiasis. Persuaded by Chagas, Mazza started investigating the Chagas disease, elucidated over thousand cases in the Chaco Province of Argentina and eventually came up with the first scientific confirmation of existence of Trypanosoma cruzi in Argentina leading to support from local and European medical schools and support and action from the Argentine government. He also studied methods of noted bacteriologist and Nobel Laureate Charles Nicolle in the treatment of typhus and discussed with the latter, the need for taking strong actions in curbing the contagious diseases among the country's poor leading to establishment of the medical mission called MEPRA. The Mazza laboratory, installed in a railway car, undertook studies on several diseases including on trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis; published regular reports; and travelled across villages to spread awareness on nature of common diseases of the rural masses as also to help control the known disease vector Triatoma infestans of Trypanosoma cruzi which can lead to the American trypanosomiasis. His death because to a sudden, severe attack of hypotension is believed to be the likely result of trypanosomiasis, a disease he thrived to control to a great extent in Argentina. Ttrypanosomiasis is called mal de Chagas-Mazza disease in Argentina in his honour.