Francisco Oller y Ferrer (1758-1831). The surgeon who performed the first smallpox vaccination in a Hispanic American territory

Abstract

Balmis arrived on February 9, 1804, in Puerto Rico, the beginning of the American stage of the Philanthropic Expedition of the vaccine that was to begin the campaign to spread the vaccine throughout Hispanic America, in the Philippines, in Macao and Canton and on the island of St. Helena. With this, the surgeon and the expeditionaries under his orders would go down in the annals for heading one of the most transcendental sanitary enterprises carried out in the history of mankind. However, in our historical research we reiterate that the arrival of the vaccine in Hispanic America did not occur exclusively at the hands of the Balmis Expedition. At the same time, in the approach and narrative, we vindicate the figure of Francisco Oller, a Spanish military surgeon, as the person responsible for the first vaccination campaign in a territory belonging to the Spanish overseas provinces. Thus, the surgeon deserves to be considered as a distinguished figure at the dawn of public health. The historical method used is based on unpublished primary sources from the 19th century, contemporary to the facts studied, documents from the 18th century corresponding to the history of the surgeons involved, and literature obtained from the main national and international databases. The results are presented in the form of an in-depth narrative of Oller's biography with new data on this relevant character. However, we do not propose its examination as a traditional biography, but as a synthesis work that highlights facts not yet sufficiently integrated as part of the universal medical and cultural heritage.