Yellow Fever – Time To Say Goode
Article by Jim00 Wilson
Yellow fever is defined as an acute viral haemorrhagic sickness. This kind of virus is transmitted by the bite of a female mosquito commonly found in tropical regions of Africa and South America. It is alleged that this virus strains in Africa and the affected South America in the 16th century when the slave buying began. In the 17th century, yellow fever was an epidemic affecting Africa, Europe and America. In the 19th century, was considered one of the most fatally infectious diseases in the olden times of killing millions.
Yellow fever is not transmitted by direct contact as people first thought. It was only in 1900 when the Walter Reed Commission headed by an American military physician Major Walter Reed, MD D. Confirmed assumption that disease is transmitted by mosquitoes. Although most acknowledged Major Walter Reed as the person who “beat” the sickness, the majority are not aware that a Cuban doctor named Carlos Juan Finlay was at the back of the discovery.
Dr Carlos Juan Finlay was born on December 3, 1833 in Puerto Principe in Cuba. He was a Cuban physician and scientist and the man who pioneered the exploration on yellow fever. He studied at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1853 and graduated 1855th He studied in Havana and Paris to complete his medical studies.
Doctor Finlay hypothesized in 1881, that a mosquito called the disease vector is the person responsible for the spread of yellow fever. According to Finlay, the mosquitoes that have bitten a person with the sickness could transmit the sickness by biting a healthy individual. After a year Finlay was able to identify the mosquito that spreads the sickness, which belongs to the genus Aedes. He suggested to control the population of mosquitoes to control the increase of yellow fever.
It took 20 years before the Walter Reed Commission actually confirmed Finlay’s theory. While much of the acclaim went to doctor Reed to turn yellow fever, doctor Walter even credited doctor Finlay’s hypothesis showed us how to control the Yellow fever and discover a true vector.
Dr Juan Carlos Finlay’s findings has made important contributions to the interests of humanity who have given so much pride and Cuban flags.
