José Manuel Mir del Junco

Pediatrician, specialist in child tuberculosis, pneumologist, professor. In addition to being a renowned pediatrician, he was also a paradigm of rigor, discipline and dedication for all generations of Cuban pediatricians.

He graduated with a degree in Sciences and Letters at age 15, on December 20, 1920. For this reason he had to wait two years before he could begin studying at the University of La Habana, where he enrolled in 1923 and graduated as a Doctor of Medicine on June 20, 1928. Subsequently, on May 1, 1934, after three years of postgraduate study, he received the title of Specialist in Childhood Diseases from the School of Pediatrics, which was created by Professor Dr. Ángel Arturo Aballí Arellano in 1926 and belonged to the Chair of Clinical Medicine and Childhood Diseases at that University.

He worked as a physician in the service of that Chair at the "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes" hospital from the year of his graduation until 1934 when he became a specialist. From 1931 he also worked at the "Instituto del Niño" where he remained until 1962.

He obtained through competitive examination the position of chief of clinic at the Anti-tuberculosis Children's Sanatorium "Ángel Arturo Aballí" in the year of its founding (1944). He worked at this pediatric institution until his death, which occurred on March 22, 1983, for he had still attended the hospital that day where he had worked tirelessly for so many years and where he held different clinical and academic responsibilities, such as chief of the Pediatric Pneumology Service for several decades.

He was a member of the National Pediatrics Group since its founding in 1960. In 1961 he was appointed auxiliary professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of La Habana. He was one of the first professors of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Santiago de Cuba (1964). In 1967 he was awarded the title of second-degree specialist in Pediatrics. He was part of the group of authors who drafted the First Standard of Diagnosis and Treatment in Pediatrics in 1969, specifically he was responsible for the chapter dedicated to diseases of the respiratory system. He had the same responsibility in the second edition conducted in 1974 and in the third in 1980.

In 1974 Professor Dr. Mir del Junco received the title of Honorary Member of the Cuban Society of Pediatrics, of which he had been president in the period 1964-1965.

In May 1975 he was admitted as a member of the International Society of Asthmology (Interasma). From that year on he served as secretary of the board of the Cystic Fibrosis Section of the Cuban Society of Pediatrics until his death. He also belonged to other scientific societies: American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Chest Physicians, Cuban Society of Allergology and Cuban Society of Pneumology and Tuberculosis.

He was appointed full professor of Pediatrics at the University of La Habana in 1977. He was in charge of drafting topics on Pediatric Pneumology in the textbook for students entitled: Topics in Pediatrics. He served as tutor and advisor for multiple residency completion works in this specialty. He was president of the examination board for state exams of first-degree specialists in Pediatrics for more than 20 years.

He published more than 70 scientific papers in various national and foreign journals. He participated in more than one hundred conferences and congresses in Cuba and other countries. He appeared several times on Cuban television cameras on the program Science and Health, where he addressed topics such as Tuberculosis in children and acute and chronic respiratory infections in pediatric patients. He was an active member of the advisory committee of the Cuban Journal of Pediatrics.

He received the Order of Merit "Manuel Fajardo" awarded by the national union of health workers for 25 years of service, the Medal for the 250th Anniversary of the University of La Habana, a diploma of merit recognition for 35 years of uninterrupted work at the pediatric hospital "Dr. Ángel Arturo Aballí" in La Habana, among other decorations and recognitions for his dedication and commitment to the service of the pediatric patient and to the teaching of Pediatrics.

On September 30, 1980 he delivered the panegyric of Professor Aballí at the National Council of Scientific Societies on the occasion of celebrating the centennial of the birth of the Father of Pediatrics in Cuba.

Although he was also surgically treated with a subtotal gastrectomy with vagotomy for bleeding gastric ulcers, he never stopped fulfilling his clinical and academic duties until the last moment of his fruitful life.

In 1982, a year before his death, he was conferred the title of Professor Emeritus of the Medical University of La Habana.

Dr. Mir del Junco, in addition to being a renowned pediatrician, is also a paradigm of rigor, discipline and dedication for all generations of Cuban pediatricians.