(A sketch of the famous Torre de Hercules of
A Coruña in Spain and the ship, Maria Pita)
And after reading more about the smallpox epidemic, I decided to blog about it as a tribute to the people who helped stop the spread of the disease in the Philippines, saving more lives than anyone could have ever imagined.
Although it was 217 years ago, I found a personal connection. The connection is the Spanish coastal city of A Coruña (click here), the city where the royal expedition sailed from on November 30, 1803. It is also the home of my good friend Kiko, who showed me around his hometown a few years back!😃
(The expedition's route from Spain to the
Americas to Las Filipinas and back to Spain
that lasted from 1803 to 1806)
Royal expedition
The expedition was officially called Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna or the Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition.
It was a royal expedition as it was funded by King Charles IV, the king of Spain at that time, who ordered the vaccine to be shared among his colonies on the other parts of the world.
The smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine (and yes, 'Hecho en España'!), was discovered in 1796 by Dr. Edward Jenner of England.
Dr. Jenner successfully created the vaccine from cowpox virus after he learned that milkmaids did not catch the smallpox because they were already exposed to cowpox, a disease in cows. That's why the word vaccine originated from the Latin word, 'vacca', which means 'cow'.
And while the smallpox vaccine was available in Europe, it was not available in the Spanish territories in the New World. That's why King Charles IV appointed his royal surgeon, Dr. Francisco Javier de Balmis, to spearhead the expedition that eventually brought the vaccine to the Canary Islands, Central America, South America, the Philippines, and China.
In order for the vaccine to be brought to the Americas, Dr. Balmis needed human hosts to carry it. That's why he brought 22 orphans from A Coruña along with a deputy surgeon (Dr. Jose Salvany), two assistants, two first-aid workers, three nurses, and Sra. Isabel Zendal Gomez, the directress of the orphanage (Casa de Expósitos) in A Coruña where the orphans came from. They sailed on a corvette named after the Galician heroine, Maria Pita.
Since the effectiveness of the vaccine was short-lived and they didn't have the technology, like refrigeration, to prolong the 'shelf-life' of the smallpox vaccine, Dr. Balmis needed the healthy orphans to carry the vaccine in their bodies during the long trip to the Americas. How? Every ten days, the live vaccine was transferred from one orphan's arm to another until they reached the New World. Monuments for these 22 Spanish orphans from Galicia were installed in A Coruña, Spain (click here for the video).
According to the list, the orphans aged from three to nine. So very young!😱
These kids probably thought they were just going on a sea trip as they were too young to comprehend what momentous achievement in medical and human history they were going to be part of.😇
Las Filipinas
After a successful expedition in the New World, Dr. Balmis left Acapulco, Mexico on February 8, 1805, for Las Filipinas.
On April 15, 1805, Dr. Balmis with 26 orphans, who, this time, were all Mexicans, arrived in Manila.
There was an initial reluctance from Filipinos against the idea of the vaccination, especially from the Catholic Church during that time. But after the Governor-General Rafael Aguilar made an example by having his five kids inoculated, everyone else accepted the cure. The Philippine expedition of Dr. Balmis inoculated about 20,000 Filipinos.
Sacrifice for humanity
The Balmis expedition did not end in Las Filipinas.
Bringing with him three Filipino orphans, he sailed for China and eventually returned to Spain in 1806. (Sadly, I could not find records of the names of these Mexican and Filipino orphans, or which orphanages in Manila the Mexican orphans were later sheltered, or whether the Filipino orphans were brought to Spain or sent back to Manila😓).
As gratitude to King Charles IV, a monument was erected in his honor in 1824 at the Plaza Roma in Intramuros, Manila.
The Balmis expedition has been hailed over the centuries as one colossal humanitarian effort that has no equal in world history. Millions of lives in several continents have been saved by the sacrifice of a few, including the very young orphans who sailed on boats across the high seas in order to save people they did not even know.
And on setting foot on foreign lands, they brought more than just a cure for a disease.
And in our time in this new pandemic, we all remember Dr. Balmis and his 'frontliners' of 1803-1806.😍
And for us here in the Philippines, let's be grateful for those orphans' sacrifice for humanity because, two centuries ago, they saved the lives of Filipinos - a people from a world they did not even know.🙏
* * * * *
(That's me being dwarfed by
the Torre de Hercules
in A Coruña on a cloudy morning😎)
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