User:AlyssaRetiz/PaulinaBeregoff

Paulina Beregoff (1902 - 20 September 1989) was a Russian-American bacteriologist, parasitologist, pharmacist, chemist, and physician who was notably the first woman to obtain a degree in medicine in Colombia and become a substitute professor at the University of Cartagena.

Early life and education
Beregoff was born in 1902 in Kyiv - at the time still within the domain of the Russian Empire - to an aristocratic family of Jewish descent. She completed primary school in Kviv before moving to the United States at the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. She finished her secondary school education in the United States and, in 1921, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in Bacteriology and Parasitology and Pharmacy and Chemistry. After graduation, Beregoff began work at the McMannes Pathology Laboratory and became a member of the Rivas Bacteriological Society of the University of Pennsylvania.

Career and continued education
In 1922, the University of Pennsylvania was contacted by the Dean of the School of Medicine of the University of Cartagena, Rafael Calvo Castaño, for an expert in tropical diseases, namely yellow fever. Calvo, who was an advisor to Cartagena's city health authorities and a UPenn research consultant, was tasked with locating an expert in such matters which had been the object of concern for local and national Colombian medical authorities. Medical professionals in Cartagena had become concerned about the local mortality rates and the subsequent reputation their city would gain as a result. The University, seeking a qualified advisor to educate and guide Colombian physicians, was sent Beregoff due to her qualifications in such fields.

Epidemics in Cartagena
After arriving in Cartagena, Beregoff went straight to work on identifying the cause of high-mortality epidemics, especially the ones affecting the Indigenous peoples inhabiting the lands by the Magdalena River. The local Colombian doctors believed this illness to be either yellow fever, typhoid fever, or malaria, but due to their not having familiarity with such symptoms and diseases, were not able to precisely narrow down the cause of the epidemic. After sending culture samples from corpses back to UPenn, Beregoff was able to correctly identify the disease as being fiebre tifomalárica (English: typhoid fever). With the cause of the epidemics known, Beregoff began formulating a thesis on preventative medicine, believing the severity of tropical diseases to stem from immunodeficiencies.

Student at the University of Cartagena
Beregoff - unlike the Colombian women at the time, who were confined to the home and domestic duties - was allowed to enroll at the University of Cartagena, although under very special conditions which sparked much discourse. While enrolled as a student, Beregoff was able to start immediately in third-year classes due to her previous degrees, set up the first bacteriology and parasitology labs in Cartagena, differentiated between the species of Laveran's malaria parasites, observed treponema-causing yaws, found Leishmania donovani in blood, and was the first to isolate Salmonella Typhi bacteria, which confirmed the disease's presence in Colombia. Thus, in 1922, Beregoff became the first woman to obtain a medical degree in Colombia after completing her post-graduate studies and research with her thesis titled "Acidosis". Beregoff was also appointed by the board of directors of the Faculty of Medicine to be a substitute professor of Bacteriology at the University just a year later in 1923, although she faced much criticism from her colleagues and superiors at the University due to her scheduling labs on Sundays, not speaking Spanish, and having her previous degrees questioned.

Later years
Beregoff married the bacteriologist Arthur Stanley Gillow in 1933 and would sign all future publications under the name Pauline Beregoff-Gillow. After her husband died in 1964, Beregoff returned to Colombia and established a foundation rooted in preventative medicine in her late husband's name. Beregoff died on September 20, 1989, leaving her inherited wealth to the aforementioned foundation.