This afternoon Benidorm pays tribute to the doctor Josep Pérez Fuster by dedicating a street to him and with a conference

Benidorm City Council is going to hold an event this afternoon to pay tribute to the Benidorm doctor and researcher Josep Pérez Fuster (Benidorm, 1856-Valencia, 1933), naming a street after him and holding a conference on his figure, one of the most important figures in Valencian medicine at the end of the 19th century. The mayor of the city, Toni Pérez, has highlighted that “today we are going to make official this well-deserved recognition, approved in the last ordinary plenary session of the Corporation, with the aim not only of highlighting the figure of this illustrious Benidorm man, but also to attend to an agreement that was initially approved by the Governing Board at the head of the City Council in 2010, but which never came to fruition”.

Toni Pérez has recalled that Josep Pérez Fuster “played a key role in understanding both the evolution of infectious diseases and in laying the foundations for the fight to eradicate them”; A figure, moreover, “of international renown and who, just as he already has a street in the Valencian capital, deserved at least this recognition also in his home town”. Especially, “this year, which marks 130 years since he carried out the first inoculation of anti-diphtheria saline solution in the city of Valencia”.

Born in Benidorm in 1856, Josep Pérez Fuster graduated in Medicine from the University of Valencia with Extraordinary Prize, and was awarded a doctorate by the University of Madrid. Among the many positions he held, those of President of the Medicine Section of the Valencian Medical Institute, Director of the Valencia Institute of Hygiene and Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine stand out. He died in Valencia in 1933. His role as a doctor and researcher was key to the arrival in Spain of antidiphtheria serotherapy, discovered in 1894. In October of that year, the municipal plenary session of the Valencia City Council agreed to send José Pérez Fuster to Paris, to the Pasteur Institute and the Trousseau Hospital, where he remained for three and a half months. After his return to Spain, on February 23, 1895, the Benidorm native carried out the first inoculation of antidiphtheria saline solution in the city of Valencia.

Since February 23, the street located at the intersection of the avenues of 9 d’Octubre and Llibertat has been renamed Calle del Metge Josep Pérez Fuster. This afternoon, the official unveiling of the plaque with his name will take place at 6 pm on this same street, where the Foietes Nursing Home and Day Centre for the Elderly is located, and which is expected to be attended by some of his descendants.

Afterwards, the Cultural room of the Mediterranean Foundation, on Alameda del Alcalde Pedro Zaragoza Street, will host the conference entitled ‘Doctor Josep Pérez Fuster, a reference in the fight against infectious diseases’, given by the head of the Pneumology service at the Sant Joan d’Alacant University Hospital, Eusebi Chiner Vives. The conference, organised jointly by the City Council and the Frax Foundation, will begin at 7.15 pm and is free of charge until the room is full.

Mayor Toni Pérez has encouraged citizens to participate in these two events to “learn about and gain a deeper understanding of the figure of a Benidorm native who was little known to the general public, but whose role as a doctor and researcher was of great importance at the time.”