Oscar Jaime Elias

Outstanding Cuban physician who made major contributions to medicine.

Doctor Jaime Elías was born in Puerto Príncipe, Camagüey. He graduated with his bachelor's degree from the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de Matanzas on June 25, 1895, where he also completed two French courses and a German course, which at that time were mandatory subjects for admission to the Faculty of Medicine.

He graduated as a doctor of medicine and surgery from the Universidad de La Habana and received his degree on July 5, 1901, although from 1897 to 1898 he continued his studies at the Universidad de Barcelona, where the members of his maternal family branch originated.

Shortly after graduating, he was one of the founders of the Liga Contra la Tuberculosis, which met for the first time on September 14, 1901 in the halls of the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País and was part of its first Board of Directors presided over by the notable Cuban phthisiologist professor Joaquín L. Jacobsen y Cantos and also comprised of doctors Francisco M. Héctor y Fernández Vega, Augusto Figueroa Riambau, Gabino J. Barnet Ruiz and Antonio M. Riva Hernández.

The Liga, in 1902, managed to found the first official Anti-Tuberculosis Dispensary, which was later called "Dr. Furbuch". In 1903, 4 wards were created in the Hospital "Numero Uno" with the name "Doctor Romay" and in 1904 the second Dispensary was founded on Escobar Street No. 205, which years later bore the name "Doctor Cándido Hoyos". Through rigorous competitive examination, doctor Jaime Elías obtained the directorship of that latter institution and in it and in the Liga his extraordinary work led him to become one of the most prestigious Cuban phthisiologists.

He studied tuberculinotherapy together with doctor Jacobsen y Cantos and was the first to practice it in the country, without major results. He was the introducer in Cuba of the practice of artificial pneumothorax and published the first work on said technique in the country in 1915.

Together with doctors Clemente Inclán Costa, Alberto Sánchez de Fuentes Peláez, José F. Ferrer Rovira and others, he initiated, in 1928, anti-tuberculosis vaccination with BCG in Cuba. In 1940 he founded with professor Luis Ortega Bolaños the Sociedad Cubana de Tisiología and was a full member of the Sociedad de Estudios Clínicos de La Habana.

Although it seems that from 1902 he worked in the chair, officially his teaching career began when he obtained by competitive examination the position of interim graduate assistant of the laboratory-museum of the chair, to which he was appointed by Rectoral Decree of May 14, 1908. A year later he obtained it as a permanent position, also by competitive examination, and remained in the position through 10 more practical competitive exercises until 1920. His last appointment was from October 12 of that year. By Presidential Decree of November 30 following, he was appointed interim auxiliary professor and took office 3 days later.

Of his numerous course programs, the following are known: "Programa de la cátedra de Farmacología", Imp. Rambla, Bouza y Cía, La Habana, 1937 and "Programa de la cátedra de Farmacología", Ed. Neptuno, La Habana, 1952.

In his first years as a full professor, doctor Jaime Elías did not publish any textbooks, then came the tragic years of the closure of the Universidad de La Habana and subsequent suspension of activities, until a certain normalization beginning in 1937. From that moment he undertook the task of writing a textbook for his subject, in collaboration with the other professors of the chair.

In 1939 he sent to print the first edition of "Lecciones de Farmacología", Cía Editora de Libros y Folletos, La Habana, 1939, 143 pages. At the head of chair No. 28 Pharmacology, as a full professor, doctor Jaime Elías remained for 35 years until his death.

It is to this doctor that the beginning and promotion among his collaborators of the writing of teaching literature in the chair of Pharmacology is owed. An enthusiastic publicist, he collaborated tenaciously in the "Boletín de la Liga contra la Tuberculosis" (1902-1917); he directed "Archivos de la Policlínica", a renowned journal founded by the eminent Cuban ophthalmologist doctor Enrique López Veitía in 1890; he directed in its first stage "Archivos de Medicina Interna" (1911-1917) and founded and directed for many years the journal "Tuberculosis".

From his extensive bibliography we will cite only his monographs:
"La premonición contra la infección tuberculosa", La Habana, 1919, in collaboration with doctor Francisco J. Ferrer Miyaya
"Tuberculosis biliar crónica y granulia crónica", La Habana, 1929
His valuable report "La Liga contra la Tuberculosis", La Habana, 1910
His articles: "La criogenina en la fiebre de los tuberculosos" (1905)
"Sífilis pulmonar" (1907)
"El Pneumotórax artificial" (1917)
"Vacunación preventiva de la tuberculosis por el B. C. G." (1930)
"Tuberculosis pulmonar y laríngea de forma grave" (1930)
"La sero-inoculación en la tuberculosis pulmonar por la prueba de Vermes a la resorcina" (1931)
"Aventura obstétrica" (1931), this account about the beginnings of his medical practice
"Síndrome hematológico grave en el curso de la crisoterapia" (1932)
"La medicina en el pensamiento de los antiguos" (1933)
Lecture "En memoria del profesor Abraham Pérez Miró", read at the Ateneo de la Habana on March 25, 1952 and published many years later, as a posthumous work, in Cuadernos de Historia de la Salud Pública No. 63, La Habana, 1981.

Death

He dies in La Habana on July 27, 1958, after completing half a century of uninterrupted teaching work at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad de La Habana.