Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud

The Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud (The Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies (GMI)) is a medical research institution that has been dedicated for more than 80 years on investigating diseases in the tropics and preventive medicine.

The institute was created in 1921 by Dr. Belisario Porras, to honor Dr. William Crawford Gorgas, who eradicated yellow fever in Panama. This achievement allowed the construction of the Panama Canal. Gorgas Memorial Laboratories was inaugurated in 1928 on Arosemena Avenue. Its expertise in studying the diseases of the tropics originated from the necessity to eradicate yellow fever and control malaria in the cities of Panama and Colon with the construction of the Panama Canal.

This triumph, led by Dr. William C. Gorgas in the first years of the 20th century, was achieved by one of the largest and most successful community-level public health interventions ever recorded in the history of medicine. Since then, many emerging and reemerging diseases have been studied at GMI and physicians and scientists of many nationalities working there have made significant contributions to medicine in the tropics. These collaborations and lines of investigation have continued up to the present.

GMI is known for its high quality laboratories, including those of parasitology, immunology, genomics, entomology, water and food chemistry, bacteriology, entomology and virology. Besides having an epidemiology and biostatistics department, it conducts research on health administration, chronic diseases and human reproduction. GMI has contributed to better the health of Panama and the Central American countries by acting as a reference laboratory to diagnose diseases like yellow fever, malaria, measles, arbovirus febrile illness, viral encephalitidies, influenza, dengue and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. Jorge Motta, MD, MPH, was the Director General from 2004 to 2008 and the present director is Dr. Nestor Sosa.

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