RT journal article
T1 The Smallpox Vaccine in Latin America: A New Approach (1801–1804)
A1 Pérez Pérez, Antonio
A1 Vallejo Villalobos, José Ramón
A2 Anatomía PatológicaBiología Celular, Histología, Historia de la Ciencia, Medicina Legal y Forense y Toxicología
K1 smallpox
K1 vaccine
K1 epidemics
K1 the Spanish Navy
K1 overseas
K1 Royal College of Medicine and Surgery of Cadiz
K1 Medical–Surgical School of Cadiz
K1 history of medicine
AB The Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition is considered in the history of medicine as the first international health expedition aimed at the global elimination of a contagious disease: smallpox. However, the initiatives carried out in this way before the arrival of the Balmis Expedition, by surgeons from the Spanish Navy, are less well known. Thus, the main objective of this research work is to offer an overview of the different anti-variolic vaccination initiatives prior to the campaign financed by the Spanish crown from these health facilities. Using the heuristic and hermeneutic method, our article is based on primary sources contrasted with specialised literature. The results obtained are presented in a narrative style from each of the surgeons identified as decisive in the implementation of the vaccine, thus providing a divergent and unpublished historiographic approach. As the facts described show, before the arrival of Balmis the vaccine substance was introduced in those countries thanks to the initiative of various surgeons: in Puerto Rico by Francisco Oller; in Cartagena and Santa Marta in Colombia by Ángel Hidalgo; in Venezuela by Alonso Ruiz; in Cuba by Tomás Romay and Bernardo de Cózar; in the Viceroyalty of New Granada (Colombia) by Lorenzo Vergés; in Guatemala by Miguel José Monzón and José María Ledesma; in the Viceroyalty of New Spain by Alejandro García Arboleya and Antonio Serrano; in Peru by Pedro Belomo; in Río de la Plata by Cristóbal Martín de Montúfar; in the Chilean region of Coquimbo by José María Gómez; and in the Philippines by Cristóbal Regidor. Finally, it should be noted that these surgeons and the approach presented are part of a historiography based on the personal actions of professionals trained, for the most part, at the Medical–Surgical School of Cadiz.
PB MDPI
SN 1648-9144
YR 2023
FD 2023-06-05
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/29118
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/29118
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 08-nov-2026