Juan Guitéras y Gener (or Juan Guiteras) (January 4, 1852 – October 28, 1925), was a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...

specializing in

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

. Guiteras studied medicine at the

University of Havana The University of Havana or (UH, ''Universidad de La Habana'') is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of the Republic of Cuba. Founded on January 5, 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first ...

, and moved to the United States in 1873 to attend the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, and graduated that same year.Juan Guiteras
Biografias y Vidas He worked at Philadelphia Hospital until 1879,American Journal of Public Health, 16 (2)
1926, pp. 159-160. when he went into the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

as a physician and began to research yellow fever, working with Stanford Chaillé and

George Miller Sternberg Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg (June 8, 1838 – November 3, 1915) was a U.S. Army physician who is considered the first U.S. bacteriologist, having written ''Manual of Bacteriology'' (1892). After he survived typhoid and yellow fever, ...

in the

Havana Yellow Fever Commission Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. On May 5, 1883 he married Dolores Gener in Cuba. He then taught at the

Medical University of South Carolina The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is a public medical school in South Carolina. It opened in 1824 in Charleston as a small private college aimed at training physicians and has since established hospitals and medical facilities acr ...

Biografias y Vidas says "la Escuela de Medicina de Charleston". AJPH calls it the "Medical College of South Carolina". I'm unsure if this is the correct identification. from 1884 to 1888, and then taught at the University of Pennsylvania from 1889 to 1898. When the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

broke out, Guiteras went to Cuba with the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and joined the yellow fever research team led by

William C. Gorgas William Crawford Gorgas KCMG (October 3, 1854 – July 3, 1920) was a United States Army physician and 22nd Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (1914–1918). He is best known for his work in Florida, Havana and at the Panama Canal in abating the ...

. Around this same time,

Carlos Finlay Carlos Juan Finlay (December 3, 1833 – August 20, 1915) was a Cuban epidemiologist recognized as a pioneer in the research of yellow fever, determining that it was transmitted through mosquitoes ''Aedes aegypti''. Biography Early life and ...

and

Walter Reed Walter Reed (September 13, 1851 – November 22, 1902) was a U.S. Army physician who in 1901 led the team that confirmed the theory of Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species rather than b ...

discovered that the

Aedes ''Aedes'' is a genus of mosquitoes originally found in tropical and subtropical zones, but now found on all continents except perhaps Antarctica. Some species have been spread by human activity: ''Aedes albopictus'', a particularly invasive spe ...

mosquito was the

disease vector In epidemiology, a disease vector is any living agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen to another living organism; agents regarded as vectors are organisms, such as parasites or microbes. The first major discovery of a disease vec ...

for yellow fever.Pierce J.R., J, Writer. 2005. ''Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered its Deadly Secrets''. John Wiley and Sons. Guiteras confirmed Finlay's results and collaborated with him to help eradicate Aedes from Cuba, reducing the incidence of yellow fever there. In 1900 he became chair of the Pathology and Tropical Diseases department at the

and founded the ''

Journal of Tropical Medicine This is a list of academic journals published by Hindawi. A B C D E G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V W References {{Reflist External linksList of journals published by Hindawi * Hindawi Hindawi or H ...

''. In 1902 he became director of the Cuban Department of Public Health and continued research in pathology. He was a member of the Yellow Fever Commission of the

International Health Board The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carnegi ...

in 1916.

Bibliography

* * ''Recent Discoveries on Malaria and the Mosquito'' (1900) * * ''Chappe, Aceotapia mutilans'' (1904) * ''Cartas sobre el cólera'' (''Letters on the cholera'') (1911) * ''Selección de los trabajos del doctor Finley'' (''Selected works of Dr. Finley'' (1911) * English translatio
''Bubonic plague in Cuba''
published in 1915. * ''Insect Borne Diseases'' (1916)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guiteras, Juan 1852 births 1925 deaths Cuban pathologists United States Navy Medical Corps officers University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Cuban non-fiction writers Cuban male writers Male non-fiction writers