Carlos J. Finlay
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Carlos Juan Finlay (born Carlos Juan Finlay y Barrés on December 3 1833, Puerto Principe, Cuba – August 20 1915, Havana, Cuba), was a Cuban physician and scientist.
Finlay was born Juan Carlos Finlay in Puerto Principe, Cuba of French and Scottish descent. He changed his name to Carlos Juan Finlay later in his life. In 1853 he attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1855, and completed his studies in Havana, and in Paris. Afterwards he settled in Havana and opened a medical practice.
Carlos Finlay became famous for his work in identifying the mosquito as a carrier of the organism causing yellow fever, now known as a disease vector. His theory was followed by the recommendation to control the mosquito population as a way to control the spread of yellow fever. His work, carried out during the 1870s finally came to prominence in 1900. He was the first to theorize in 1881 that a mosquito was the way by which yellow fever was transmitted; a mosquito that bites a victim of the disease could bite a healthy person and spread the disease. A year later he identified the organism transmitting yellow fever to be in the genus Aedes. His hypothesis and exhaustive proofs was 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.
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."
This discovery helped William C. Gorgas of Alabama 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 died each year from malaria and yellow fever.
In the city of Marianao in Havana, Cuba, there is a monument honoring Dr. Finlay. This monument has the shape of a syringe and it is usually referred to as "El Obelisco" ("The Obelisk"). Finlay was also commemorated on a 1981 Cuban stamp. [2] A statue commemorating Dr. Finlay is located on the bayfront in Panama City, near the canal he helped make possible. The United Nations {UNESCO) prize for Microbiology is named in his honor.