Francisco Javier de Balmis

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Francisco Javier Balmis y Berenguer (born December 2, 1753 in Alicante , † February 12, 1819 ) was a Spanish medic who worked in 1803 on behalf of the Spanish King Charles IV . a trip to South America and Asia led to the population against smallpox or smallpox to vaccinate . The expedition bore the official title " Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna " (philanthropic royal vaccination expedition) and was also known as the "Balmis Expedition". It is regarded as one of the great humanitarian activities of medical history and inspired about the President of Rotary International 1984/1985 Carlos Canseco to the global campaign to eradicate polio Polio Plus.

Life

Francisco Javier de Balmis y Berenguer was born to Antonio Balmis, a surgeon of French origin, and Luisa Berenguer.

As a young man, Francisco Balmis moved to Havana and later to Mexico City . In Mexico City he was the chief physician of the San Juan de Dios Hospital. There he studied herbal medicines , especially with the aim of curing sexually transmitted diseases. On this subject he published in Madrid in 1794 the title Tratado de las virtudes del agave y la begonia (Treatise on the benefits of agave and begonia).

Back in Spain he became a doctor to King Charles IV.

Smallpox epidemics had been a major problem for many years and Edward Jenner had only developed a vaccine a few years earlier in England. Balmis convinced the Spanish King Charles IV, who had lost a daughter to smallpox, to spread the vaccine in the Spanish areas of America as well. Balmis was appointed head of the expedition that sailed to America in 1803 on the corvette María Pita from La Coruña (Spain). Balmis put together a team that included a nurse, Isabel Sendales , whose job it was to look after the children who would effectively bring the vaccine to America. The children were individually infected with the vaccine and the vaccine was then transferred from arm to arm to be transported to the other continent. All children arrived safe and sound and stayed in South America. This story became very famous.

Overall, the tour continued from America to Asia. It lasted seven years. Balmis traveled to Puerto Rico , Puerto Cabello , Caracas , Havana, Mérida, Veracruz, and Mexico City. The vaccine was shipped to Texas in the north and New Granada in the south    .

In Mexico City, Balmis was allowed to vaccinate the viceroy's son, José de Iturrigaray, which made his vaccination campaign very popular .

In 1806 Balmis sailed from Acapulco to Manila and then came back to Spain. In 1810 he went to Mexico again.

In addition to vaccinating the population, one of the goals of the expedition was to set up local vaccination centers to ensure vaccination even after the expedition had left. Balmis wrote an introduction to the transport and preservation of the vaccine and translated Moreau's work on the subject from French.

Balmis died in Madrid in 1819.

Miguel Muñoz preserved and distributed the vaccine in Mexico until 1844 when the project was taken over by his son Luis. After Luis Muñoz, Luis Malanco was responsible for the project.

Honors

The trip from Balmis was hailed as one of the great feats of medical history by Jenner , the inventor of the smallpox vaccination.

In his native Alicante, Balmis was made an honorary citizen posthumously. In Alicante there is also a square with his name. Every year in Alicante a prize is given to an outstanding medical practitioner who bears his name (Premio Balmis Rotary Club Alicante).

In La Coruña, the starting point of the expedition, a large monument commemorates Balmis, called Balcón de la Expedición de Balmis.

In 2020, the Spanish Armed Forces named their military operation to combat the coronavirus epidemic after Balmis.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The publisher or journal for the advances and latest observations, discoveries and inventions in the arts and sciences and for mutual entertainment: with an intelligence sheet for objects of literature, justice, police and trade. 1808 . Publishing house d. Handlungs-Zeitung, 1808 ( google.es [accessed May 31, 2019]).
  2. ^ Carlos Franco-Paredes, Lorena Lammoglia, José Ignacio Santos-Preciado: The Spanish Royal Philanthropic Expedition to bring Smallpox vaccination to the New World and Asia in the 19th Century . In: Oxford Journals (Ed.): Clinical Infectious Diseases . 41, No. 9, 2005, pp. 1285-1289. doi : 10.1086 / 496930 . PMID 16206103 .
  3. ↑ Carlos Canseco: FRANCISCO XAVIER Balmis: Benefactor of Humanity. May 10, 2002, Retrieved June 2, 2019 (Spanish).
  4. ↑ EXPEDICIÓN BALMIS: UNA HAZAÑA HUMANITARIA PARA ERRADICAR LA VIRUELA. Retrieved May 31, 2019 (Spanish).
  5. ^ Smith, Michael M: The 'Real Expedición Marítima de la Vacuna' in New Spain and Guatemala . Ed .: Trans Amer. Phil. Soc. New Series. 1970, p. 1-74 .
  6. ^ Medicinisch-chirurgische Zeitung: 1807, 1 . Rauch, 1807 ( google.es [accessed May 31, 2019]).
  7. ↑ Imperial and Kurpfalzbairisch privileged general newspaper: 1804 . Cotta, 1804 ( google.es [accessed May 31, 2019]).
  8. ^ McIntyre JWR, Stuart HC: Medicine in Canada: Smallpox and its control in Canada . In: Canadian Medical Association Journal . 161, No. 12, 1999, pp. 1543-1547. PMID 10624414 . PMC 1230874 (free full text).
  9. ^ De Romo, Ana Cecilia Rodríguez (1997). Inoculation in the 1799 smallpox epidemic in Mexico: Myth or real solution? . Antilia: Spanish Journal of History of Natural Sciences and Technology .
  10. ^ Ambeth R. Ocampo: Vaccine expedition in early 1800s (en) . 
  11. ↑ Premios Balmis 2009-2017 - ROTARY CLUB ALICANTE. Retrieved May 31, 2019 (Spanish).
  12. ↑ Ediciones El País: A Coruña recuerda a los 22 niños que llevaron la vacuna de la viruela a America . In: El País . December 3, 2003, ISSN  1134-6582 ( elpais.com [accessed May 31, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Estado Mayor de la Defensa: Mas de 7700 Personas trabajan en la lucha contra el Covid 19. In: www.emad.defensa.gob.es. April 2, 2020, accessed June 13, 2020 (Spanish).
personal data
SURNAME Balmis, Francisco Javier de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish medic
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1753
PLACE OF BIRTH Alicante
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1819