![]() ![]() Yellow fever was actually the first virus to be discovered in history. At the time, viruses were not known to exist, and diseases like yellow fever and malaria were thought to be caused by poor sanitation. soldiers died from the disease.ĭecades before the wars, in 1881, Cuban-Spanish physician Carlos Finlay made the hypothesis that Aedes genus mosquitoes were carriers of the diseases and transmitted the virus through bites. During the Second War for Cuban Independence, an estimated 16,000 Spanish soldiers died from yellow fever, and after the Spanish-American War, an estimated 5,000 U.S. However, those not immune to the virus were at grave risk. ![]() Yellow fever is nowhere near as deadly to children as it is to adults, so very few Cubans died from the diseases. ![]() Yellow fever was endemic in Cuba, but most Cubans had immunity to the virus, having been infected as children. Most of these outbreaks originated in port cities, transmitted from ships arriving from the Caribbean countries, particularly Cuba. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans in 1878 killed more than twenty thousand. An outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793 killed ten percent of the population, outbreaks in New Orleans over the 19th Century killed tens of thousands, and an outbreak affecting St. This man's name was Carlo Finlay and this is his story.įrom its introduction in the United States in 1699 through the early 20th Century, yellow fever killed thousands of Americans in cities across the country. Reed himself credited with the discovery. However, few people know about the man whom Dr. Walter Reed as the man who led the research team that discovered that Aedes genus mosquitoes were the disease vector responsible for transmitting yellow fever virus. ![]()
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