In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we look back at Cuban-born Carlos Juan Finlay, MD, who is credited with identifying correlations between yellow fever epidemics and increases in the mosquito population. In 1881, he presented his mosquitos-as-vectors theory to scientific conferences in Havana and Washington, D.C. - and was met with ridicule.
In 1898, the United States wrested Cuba from Spain in the Spanish-American War, but its troops suffered more deaths from infectious diseases than from combat. Desperate, the U.S. Army turned to Finlay for help and was able to greatly reduce outbreaks by applying some of his ideas about mosquito control, such as destroying larvae in stagnant water. Finlay's insights enabled the completion of the Panama Canal, which had been disrupted repeatedly by outbreaks.
Check out more outstanding stories of Hispanic men and women, featured in
AAMCNews, who improved health across the nation and around the world.
Are there any stories you'd like to share? Please post them in the discussion thread below.
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Stacy Weiner
Senior Staff Writer
Association of American Medical Colleges
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