Monumento homenaxe expedición Balmis Coruña - A Coruña, Galicia, España - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

In the Paseo Parrote, in the port of Coruña, there is the Dr. Balmis Expedition by the author Acisclo Manzano.
Is a granitic statue in which there are the doctor and two children,.


"The Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition, known as the Balmis-Salvany Expedition or Balmis Expedition in reference to the Alicante physician Francisco Xavier Balmis, was a philanthropic expedition that traveled around the world and lasted from November 30, 1803 to 1806. Its goal was initially for the smallpox vaccine to reach every corner of the then Spanish Empire (America, the Philippines, and other Pacific islands), as the high mortality of the virus was killing thousands of children. King Charles IV supported and publicly funded the court physician, Dr. Balmis, in his idea of ??a mass vaccination of children throughout the empire, as his own daughter Infanta Maria Louise had also suffered from the disease. Until then, smallpox killed, disfigured or incapacitated a very important part of the population. The name of Balmis was forever attached to this expedition. For the choice of the ship of this voyage, the last of the great Spanish scientific expeditions of the Enlightenment, speed and economy prevailed over comfort and, although at first it was thought to use a Navy mail ship (which were light and fast , and who frequently traveled to the other side of the Atlantic), it was finally decided to hire a merchant ship. From all the present options, the corvette María Pita was chosen, a ship of two hundred tons owned by the shipowner from A Coruña Manuel Díez Tabanares y Sobrino, with three sticks and square sails. The expedition left the port of A Coruña on November 30, 1803. María Pita, under the command of Balmis, with a passage formed by a group of boys from the city's hospice, who were immunized during the voyage and served as living receptors for smallpox antibodies. , ending in Lisbon on August 14, 1806. It is considered the first international medical expedition in history, and has managed to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of people to protect them from smallpox."

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/18/2021 Ariberna visited it