National Post Staff
JULY 28,2021
When Spanish physician Francisco Javier de Balmis decided to set off to Spain’s colonies in 1803 with the hopes of vaccinating people from smallpox in the Spanish colonies, he was faced a conundrum: how can he transport the vaccines across the Atlantic Ocean?
When Spanish physician Francisco Javier de Balmis decided to set off to Spain’s colonies in 1803 with the hopes of vaccinating people from smallpox in the Spanish colonies, he was faced a conundrum: how can he transport the vaccines across the Atlantic Ocean?
© Provided by National Post Francisco Javier de Balmis became famous for leading an expedition in 1803 to Spain's then-colonies in Latin America and the Philippines to vaccinate against small pox.
At the time, the refrigerator, now a handy vaccine storage method, hadn’t been invented, forcing people to use old time-tested methods to preserve their foods and other items — cellars, boxes stored indoor or outside and a variety of salting, spicing and pickling methods.
There was no in vitro method that could successfully store the smallpox vaccine, derived by injecting people with cowpox, a bovine cousin of smallpox — for more than 12 days.
So Balmis turned to what, at that time, would have been considered the next best option — children.
According to a new exhibition of documents, on show in Seville, detailing Balmis’ voyage to the colonies in Seville, the physician set off on his expedition from A Coruña in north-west Spain, accompanied by 22 orphans. Isabel Zendal, who ran the orphanage the children belonged to, also came on board, serving as nurse and carer, along with her nine-year-old son.
During the trip, he would inject the cowpox virus into a child. Once that child had developed pustules — skin blisters filled with a transparent fluid — as a symptom of the disease, he would withdraw the serum from a pustule and inject that into the next child, thereby ensuring that the vaccine stays fresh until the end of the trip.
None of the children died from the disease, according to the Guardian .
At the time, the refrigerator, now a handy vaccine storage method, hadn’t been invented, forcing people to use old time-tested methods to preserve their foods and other items — cellars, boxes stored indoor or outside and a variety of salting, spicing and pickling methods.
There was no in vitro method that could successfully store the smallpox vaccine, derived by injecting people with cowpox, a bovine cousin of smallpox — for more than 12 days.
So Balmis turned to what, at that time, would have been considered the next best option — children.
According to a new exhibition of documents, on show in Seville, detailing Balmis’ voyage to the colonies in Seville, the physician set off on his expedition from A Coruña in north-west Spain, accompanied by 22 orphans. Isabel Zendal, who ran the orphanage the children belonged to, also came on board, serving as nurse and carer, along with her nine-year-old son.
During the trip, he would inject the cowpox virus into a child. Once that child had developed pustules — skin blisters filled with a transparent fluid — as a symptom of the disease, he would withdraw the serum from a pustule and inject that into the next child, thereby ensuring that the vaccine stays fresh until the end of the trip.
None of the children died from the disease, according to the Guardian .
SLAVERY
On arriving in Mexico, Balmis recruited another 26 children to accompany him on the trip from Acapulco to the Philippines. According to the documents, all 26 children were Mexican boys, aged from four to 14 and had been sold to Balmis by their parents. Some of the boys were described as “Spanish” and others as mestizos (mixed blood).
Three of the boys were listed with unknown parentage, and five other only had their mother’s name appear in their documentation.
The original 22 children stayed in Mexico.
The idea to use children as vaccine transport, while barbaric now, was considered commonplace at the time, the Guardian reported. Edward Jenner, who had first discovered the use of cowpox as a smallpox vaccine, had tested his theory by injecting the virus in an eight-year-old boy.
By the end of Balmis’ voyage, about 300,000 people in the Canaries, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, the Philippines and China were vaccinated for free.
“The strategy adopted by Balmis was a cheap, ingenious and pioneering solution to ensure that the vaccine arrived in the Americas in good condition,” Alberto García-Basteiro, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Barcelona, told the Guardian.
“It’s likely that nowadays the strategy of using children to transport the vaccine would be criticised on ethical grounds, but the impact and benefits of the expedition cannot be denied.”
The exhibition can be viewed at the Archivo General de Indias in Seville and will remain on display until 15 Sept.
On arriving in Mexico, Balmis recruited another 26 children to accompany him on the trip from Acapulco to the Philippines. According to the documents, all 26 children were Mexican boys, aged from four to 14 and had been sold to Balmis by their parents. Some of the boys were described as “Spanish” and others as mestizos (mixed blood).
Three of the boys were listed with unknown parentage, and five other only had their mother’s name appear in their documentation.
The original 22 children stayed in Mexico.
The idea to use children as vaccine transport, while barbaric now, was considered commonplace at the time, the Guardian reported. Edward Jenner, who had first discovered the use of cowpox as a smallpox vaccine, had tested his theory by injecting the virus in an eight-year-old boy.
By the end of Balmis’ voyage, about 300,000 people in the Canaries, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, the Philippines and China were vaccinated for free.
“The strategy adopted by Balmis was a cheap, ingenious and pioneering solution to ensure that the vaccine arrived in the Americas in good condition,” Alberto García-Basteiro, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Barcelona, told the Guardian.
“It’s likely that nowadays the strategy of using children to transport the vaccine would be criticised on ethical grounds, but the impact and benefits of the expedition cannot be denied.”
The exhibition can be viewed at the Archivo General de Indias in Seville and will remain on display until 15 Sept.
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