Marcelino Pascua, born in Valladolid, June 14, 1897 – Geneva (Switzerland), June 12, 1977. Specialist in health statistics, epidemiology, and public health, and politician.
Of humble origins, trained in health statistics and epidemiology in London and Baltimore, he implemented the Mandatory Disease Notification System, the first Spanish health information system, currently in force, from the Office of Health Statistics.
With the arrival of the Second Republic, he played a prominent role as a socialist politician.
He was elected deputy for Las Palmas in the Constituent Assembly, supporting Juan Negrín's candidacy.
Director General of Health during the progressive Republican period (1931-1933), he laid the groundwork for a profound reform of Public Health, tripled the department's budget, promoted the fight against major infectious diseases and cancer, promoted child hygiene and the organization of psychiatric care, and structured healthcare at the local, provincial, and national levels. Rural hygiene centers were created, thus changing the organizational landscape of Health, while also seeking to promote preventive activities through medical and prophylactic care.
He intensified the fight against tuberculosis through the construction of new dispensaries, children's preventive clinics, and sanatoriums.
The same occurred with the fight against venereal disease, which became dependent on the state budget. He promoted the creation of a National School of Visiting Nurses.
After the coup d'état and during the Civil War, he served as Republican ambassador in Moscow and Paris.
In March 1939, he went into exile in the United States, working as a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.
He participated in the creation of the World Health Organization, where, as director of the Division of Health Statistics, he played a key role in the development of the International Classification of Diseases and Causes of Death.
In Geneva, in 1965, he published the treatise Biostatistical Methodology for Physicians and Health Officials, a reference book for Spanish public health professionals. He signed it with a brief "M. Pascua," as he was persona non grata to the Franco regime.
After the dictator's death, he visited Spain in 1976. Lung cancer prevented his final return. He died in Geneva in 1977, three days before our first democratic elections.
