Carlos Finlay
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Carlos Juan Finlay (December 3, 1833 – August 20, 1915) was a Cuban epidemiologist recognized as a pioneer in the research of yellow fever, determining that it was transmitted through mosquitoes Aedes aegypti.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref>
BiographyEdit
Early life and educationEdit
Finlay was born Juan Carlos Finlay y de Barrés in Puerto Príncipe (now Camagüey), Cuba to Scottish-born Dr. Edward (Eduardo) Finlay and French-born Elisa (Isabel) de Barrés.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
At that time Cuba was part of the Kingdom of Spain. He reversed the order of his given names to "Carlos Juan" later in his life. His father was a physician who had fought alongside Simón Bolívar, and his family owned a coffee plantation in Alquízar. He attended school in France in 1844, but was forced to return to Cuba after two years because he contracted chorea.<ref name="chaves">Template:Cite journal</ref>
After recovering, he returned to Europe in 1848, but became stuck in England for another two years due to political turmoil, and after arriving in France to continue his education, he contracted typhoid fever and again returned to Cuba.<ref name=":0"/>
Because the University of Havana would not recognize his European academic credits, he enrolled at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which did not require prerequisites. Here Finlay met John Kearsley Mitchell, a proponent of the germ theory of disease, and his son Silas Weir Mitchell, who supervised his studies. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1855.<ref name=":0"/>
He then returned to Havana and set up an ophthalmology practice in 1857, and then studied in Paris in 1860–61. In October 1865 he married Adela Shine, a native of the Island of Trinidad. They had three sons, Charles, George and Frank Finlay.<ref name=":0"/>
Professional careerEdit
Finlay's work, carried out during the 1870s, finally came to prominence in 1900. He was the first to theorize, in 1881, that a mosquito was a carrier, now known as a disease vector, of the organism causing yellow fever: a mosquito that bites a victim of the disease could subsequently bite and thereby infect a healthy person.<ref>Carlos Juan Finlay (presented: August 14, 1881; published: 1882) "El mosquito hipoteticamente considerado como agente de trasmision de la fiebre amarilla" (The mosquito hypothetically considered as an agent in the transmission of pink fever) Anales de la Real Academia de Ciencias Médicas, Físicas y Naturales de la Habana, 18 : 147-169. Available on-line in English at:
- Charles Finlay, with Rudolph Matas, translator (1881) "The mosquito hypothetically considered as an agent in the transmission of yellow fever poison," New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, 9 : 601-616.</ref>
He presented this theory at the 1881 International Sanitary Conference, where it was not well-received, and in fact made him subject to ridicule and mockery.<ref name="crosby">Crosby, M.C. 2006. The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History. Berkley Books. Template:ISBN</ref> A year later Finlay identified a mosquito of the genus Aedes as the organism transmitting yellow fever.<ref name=":0" /> His theory was followed by the recommendation to control the mosquito population as a way to control the spread of the disease.<ref name="chaves" />
His hypothesis and exhaustive proofs were confirmed nearly twenty years later by the Walter Reed Commission of 1900. Finlay went on to become the chief health officer of Cuba from 1902 to 1909. Although Reed received much of the credit in history books for "beating" yellow fever, Reed himself credited Finlay with the discovery of the yellow fever vector, and thus how it might be controlled. Reed often cited Finlay's papers in his own articles and gave him credit for the discovery in his personal correspondence.<ref name="pierce">Pierce J.R., J, Writer. 2005. Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered its Deadly Secrets. John Wiley and Sons. Template:ISBN</ref>
In the words of General Leonard Wood, a physician and U.S. military governor of Cuba in 1900: "The confirmation of Dr. Finlay's doctrine is the greatest step forward made in medical science since Jenner's discovery of the vaccination [for smallpox]."
This discovery helped William C. Gorgas reduce the incidence and prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases in Panama during the American campaign, from 1903 onwards, to construct the Panama Canal. Prior to this, about 10% of the workforce had died each year from malaria and yellow fever.Template:Citation needed
Finlay was a member of Havana's Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences. He was fluent in French, German, Spanish, and English and could read Latin.Template:Cn His interests were widespread and he wrote articles on subjects as varied as leprosy, cholera, gravity, and plant diseases. His main interest, however, was yellow fever, and he was the author of 40 articles on this disease. His theory that an intermediary host was responsible for the spread of the disease was treated with ridicule for years. A humane man, he often took on patients who could not afford medical care. As a result of his work, Finlay was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, although he was never awarded the prize.<ref name="crosby">Crosby, M.C. 2006. The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History. Berkley Books. Template:ISBN</ref> He received the National Order of the Legion of Honour of France in 1908.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Finlay died from a stroke, caused by severe brain seizures, at his house in Havana on August 20, 1915.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
LegacyEdit
In 1928, President Gerardo Machado established the National Order of Merit Carlos J. Finlay, rewarding contributions to healthcare and medicine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is the highest scientific decoration awarded by the Cuban Council of State.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The order was discontinued between 1959 and 1981.
In recognition of his work on Yellow Fever, The American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene posthumously awarded him the Walter Reed Medal in 1942.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On Cuba Street in downtown Old Havana, the Revolutionary Government in 1962 founded a medical history museum in honor of Carlos J. Finlay. On the wall of the Finlay Medical History Museum in Havana, the inscription states, "History Museum of the Medical Sciences ' Carlos J. Finlay', created by the Revolutionary Government in eternal homage to the men who contributed to the advance of the sciences in Cuba. National Commission of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Cuba. Havana, 13 June 1962."Template:Citation needed
In the municipality of Marianao, now within the city of Havana, there is a monument in the shape of a syringe, honoring Finlay and usually referred to as El Obelisco (The Obelisk). Finlay was also commemorated on a 1981 Cuban stamp.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A statue commemorating Finlay is located on the bayfront in Panama City, near the canal he helped make possible.
The UNESCO Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology is named in his honor.<ref>Carlos J. Finlay UNESCO Prize for Microbiology</ref>
Finlay was honoured with a Google Doodle on December 3, 2013, on the 180th anniversary of his birth.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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}}</ref> Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital is named after him. The Finlay Institute for Vaccines (Instituto Finlay de Vacunas, in Spanish), created in 1991, is named after him,<ref>IFV - Sobre Nosotros</ref> as is the exoplanet BD−17 63 b in Cetus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Despite the "Miami, FL" postal address, it is not in the City of Miami (see map of Miami-Dade County municipalities. Note that the city of Houston stated in 1996 that: "The U.S. Postal Service establishes ZIP codes and mailing addresses in order to maximize the efficiency of their system, not to recognize jurisdictional boundaries."
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See alsoEdit
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FootnotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
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- Pierce J.R., J, Writer. 2005. Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered its Deadly Secrets. John Wiley and Sons. Template:ISBN
- Crosby, M.C. 2006. The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History. Berkley Books. Template:ISBN
- Jefferson Medical College hosted an international symposium celebrating accomplishments of Dr. Carlos Finlay Yellow Fever, A Symposium in Commemoration of Carlos Juan Finlay, 1955.