Carlos J. Finlay, recognized as “benefactor of humanity”, owes this title to his discovery of the transmitting agent of the yellow fever by an intermediate agent, presented on February 18th, 1881 in his capacity as representative of the colonial government, in an auditorium full of specialists, gathered at the International Sanitary Conference in Washington and before the high scientific community; opening, with his discovery, new paths to science by starting a new branch: Entomology.

The battle that the Cuban sage had to fight for twenty years on a scientific level to obtain recognition for his theory was not easy. During the US occupation of Cuba, in 1898, Dr. Finlay addressed the officers, the Military Health Service, and the medical press in the United States and proposed a plan to fight yellow fever. His results were so overwhelming that the ideas were approved, after all attempts by the American medical side failed. Thanks to his investigations, millions of citizens of countries with tropical weather were saved from certain death and, even, the complex construction of the Panama Canal, which was seriously affected by this disease, was completed.

The clarity of the historical facts was evident; however, the government of the United States tried to hide the scientific victory of the eminent Cuban doctor. The Rockefeller Foundation, US institution charged with evaluating the world’s major scientific successes, promoted a campaign to award the physician Walter Reed for this discovery. In the end, justice was served at the XIV International Congress of the History of Medicine, in which it was one and for all declared that “only Finlay deserves the credit for this discovery.”

Today, after 140 years, these values ​​remain unwavering at different times to the pride of Cubans, through the work of new generations of scientists, faithful to the legacy of Carlos J Finlay.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García