Mongi Ben Hamida

Mongi Ben Hamida (Arabic: منجي بن حميدة), born 1 February 1928 in Kelibia, and died on May 4, 2003, was a Tunisian neurologist and neuropsychiatrist.

Mongi Ben Hamida held a diploma of advanced studies in histology and cytology under the direction of Professor René Couteaux.

Later, he moved to New York City, where he completed a one-year internship as an associate professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

It was also the case for later discoveries, such as juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (described in 1984 and then in 1990 with three phenotypic forms), Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (a study led by his successor, the Professor Fayçal Hentati) and spinocerebellar heredo-degeneracy, Friedreich's ataxia with vitamin E deficiency (in 1993 and whose gene is located the same year by his wife Christiane Ben Hamida).

These were pathologies that almost all neurologists of that time around the world neglected and did not care to teach at medicine schools, since according to them, these diseases were of complex classifications, incurable and their handling would result in losses to the health budget.