Dr. Santiago María del Granado y Navarro Calderón, 1st Count of Cotoca (1757 in Cadiz, Spain – 1823 in

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; "Holy Cross of the Mountain Range"), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River (Bolivia), P ...

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), was a Spanish nobleman and physician, who at the beginning of the 19th century traveled through some of the most remote regions of South America where

epidemics An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious d ...

were raging, to inoculate Native Americans with the recently discovered

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...

and prevent the spread of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

. His humanitarian efforts paralleled Dr. Francisco Xavier Balmis and Dr. Josep Salvany i Lleopart's 19th-century Spanish expedition to deliver smallpox vaccine to the New World. The idealistic spirit of Dr. del Granado's vaccine mission is a sensational and heartwarming page from the history of Spanish medicine. He saved thousands upon thousands of lives, as reported by the Spanish viceroy at Rio de la Plata

Santiago de Liniers Santiago Antonio María de Liniers y Bremond, 1st Count of Buenos Aires, Order of Montesa, KOM, Order of Malta, OM (July 25, 1753 – August 26, 1810) was a French People, French officer in the Spain, Spanish military service, and a viceroy of ...

and public health official Dr. Miguel O'Gorman to the Supreme Central and Governmental Junta of Spain and the Indies during the political upheaval of the Napoleonic invasions. Dr. del Granado was the great-great-grandfather of the Bolivian

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

Javier del Granado y Granado.

References

* Antonio Dubravcic-Luksic, ''Diccionario biográfico médico hispanoamericano'', p. 24 (2006) * Susana María Ramírez Martín, ''La salud del Imperio: La Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna'', p. 171 (2002) * Josep M. Barnadas, "Granado Navarro, Santiago", ''Diccionario histórico de Bolivia'', (2002) * Jorge Garrett Aillón, ''Historia de la medicina en Santa Cruz'', pp. 74–76, 212–216, 404 (1992) * Gabriel René Moreno, ''Biblioteca boliviana: Catálogo del archivo de Mojos y Chiquitos'', p. 420 (1888) {{DEFAULTSORT:Granado, Santiago del 1757 births 1823 deaths Smallpox vaccines 19th-century Spanish physicians