Balmis Expedition

The Balmis Expedition (1803–1806) was a three-year mission to Spanish America and Asia led by Dr. Francisco Javier de Balmis with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox. Vaccination, a much safer way to prevent smallpox than older methods such as inoculation, had been introduced by the English physician Edward Jenner in 1798.

The Balmis expedition, officially called Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna, set off from A Coruña on 30 November 1803. It may be considered the first international health-care expedition in history. The discoverer of the vaccine, Edward Jenner himself, wrote, "I don’t imagine the annals of history furnish an example of philanthropy so noble, so extensive as this."

King Charles IV of Spain supported his royal doctor Balmis, since his daughter María Luísa had died from the illness. The expedition sailed on Maria Pita and carried 22 orphan boys (eight to ten years old) as successive carriers of the virus; Balmis, a deputy surgeon, two assistants, two first-aid practitioners, three nurses, and Isabel López de Gandalia, the rectoress of Casa de Expósitos, a A Coruña orphanage.

The mission took the vaccine to the Canary Islands, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, the Philippines and China. The ship carried also scientific instruments and translations of the Historical and Practical Treatise on the Vaccine by Moreau de Sarthe to be distributed to the local vaccine commissions to be founded.

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