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yellow fever

 
Medical Encyclopedia: Yellow Fever
 
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Definition

Yellow fever is a severe infectious disease, caused by a virus called a "flavivirus." This flavivirus can cause outbreaks of epidemic proportions throughout Africa and tropical America. The first written evidence of such an epidemic occurred in the Yucatan in 1648. Since that time, much has been learned about the interesting transmission patterns of this devastating illness.

Description

In order to understand how yellow fever is passed, several terms need to be defined. The word "host" refers to an animal that can be infected with a particular disease. The term "vector" refers to an organism which can carry a particular disease-causing agent (such as a virus or bacteria) without actually developing the disease. The vector can then pass the virus or bacteria on to a new host.

Many of the common illnesses in the United States (including the common cold, many viral causes of diarrhea, and influenza or "flu") are spread via direct passage of the causative virus between human beings. Yellow fever, however, cannot be passed directly from one infected human being to another. Instead, the virus responsible for yellow fever requires an intermediate vector, a mosquito, which carries the virus from one host to another.

The hosts of yellow fever include both humans and monkeys. The cycle of yellow fever transmission occurs as follows: an infected monkey is bitten by a tree-hole breeding mosquito. This mosquito acquires the virus, and can pass the virus on to any number of other monkeys that it may bite. When a human is bitten by such a mosquito, the human may acquire the virus. In the case of South American yellow fever, the infected human may return to the city, where an urban mosquito (Aedes aegypti) serves as a viral vector, spreading the infection rapidly by biting humans.

— Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD


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Dictionary: yellow fever
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n.

An infectious tropical disease caused by an arbovirus transmitted by mosquitoes of the genera Aedes, especially A. aegypti, and Haemagogus and characterized by high fever, jaundice, and often gastrointestinal hemorrhaging. Also called yellow jack.


 
Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Yellow fever
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An acute, febrile, mosquito-borne viral disease characterized in severe cases by jaundice, albuminuria, and hemorrhage. Inapparent infections also occur.

The agent is a flavivirus, an arbovirus of group B. The virus multiplies in mosquitoes, which remain infectious for life. After the mosquito ingests a virus-containing blood meal, an interval of 12–18 days (called the extrinsic incubation period) is required for it to become infectious. See also Animal virus; Arboviral encephalitides.

The virus enters the body through a mosquito bite and multiplies in lymph nodes, circulates in the blood, and localizes in the liver, spleen, kidney, bone marrow, and lymph glands. The severity of the disease and the major signs and symptoms which appear depend upon where the virus localizes and how much cell destruction occurs. The incubation period is 3–6 days. At the onset, the individual has fever, chills, headache, and backache, followed by nausea and vomiting. A short period of remission often follows. On about the fourth day, the period of intoxication begins with a slow pulse relative to a high fever and moderate jaundice. In severe cases, there are high levels of protein in the urine, and manifestations of bleeding appear; the vomit may be black with altered blood; and there is an abnormally low number of lymphocytes in the blood. When the disease progresses to the severe stage (black vomit and jaundice), the mortality rate is high. However, the infection may be mild and go unrecognized. Diagnosis is made by isolation of the virus from the serum obtained from an individual as early as possible in the disease, or by the rise in serum antibody. See also Antibody; Complement-fixation test; Neutralization reaction (immunology).

There are two major epidemiological cycles of yellow fever: classical or urban epidemic yellow fever, and sylvan or jungle yellow fever. Urban yellow fever involves person-to-person transmission by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the Western Hemisphere and West Africa. This mosquito breeds in the accumulations of water that accompany human settlement. Jungle yellow fever is primarily a disease of monkeys. In South America and Africa, it is transmitted from monkey to monkey by arboreal mosquitoes (Haemagogus and Aedes species) that inhabit the moist forest canopy. The infection in animals ranges from severe to inapparent. Persons who come in contact with these mosquitoes in the forest can become infected. Jungle yellow fever may also occur when an infected monkey visits a human habitation and is bitten by A. aegypti, which then transmits the virus to a human.

Vigorous mosquito abatement programs have virtually eliminated urban yellow fever. However, with the speed of modern air travel, the threat of a yellow fever outbreak exists where A. aegypti is present. An excellent attenuated live-virus vaccine is available. See also Vaccination.

 
Encyclopedia of Public Health: Yellow Fever
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Yellow fever, a member of the genus Flavivirus, is an arboviral infection found throughout Africa and South America. It is transmitted primarily by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito and also by Haemogogus mosquitoes in South America.

Though yellow fever caused epidemics in the United States and Europe in earlier centuries, today it exists only in Africa and Central and South America.

There are two main cycles of transmission of yellow fever: the sylvatic, or jungle, cycle; and the urban cycle. In the sylvatic cycle, the infection is maintained between monkeys and mosquitoes. A human entering the jungle environment (e.g., loggers, hunters) is at risk if bitten by an infected mosquito. Urban yellow fever occurs when the virus is introduced into urban centers, for example by migrant laborers arriving from rural regions. The domestic mosquito, A. aegypti, then carries the infection from person to person. In contrast to jungle yellow fever, where only small numbers of individuals are at risk, urban yellow fever epidemics may be quite extensive.

An intermediate cycle has also been described in Africa in areas where there is increased contact between humans, monkeys, and mosquitoes, such as at the edges of forested areas; this is a likely source of larger urban outbreaks.

Following the bite of an infective mosquito, the incubation period is three to six days. Although some cases may be asymptomatic or very mild, most cases are characterized by sudden onset of fever, chills, myalgias, backache, headache, nausea, and vomiting. Relative bradycardia (Faget's sign) is common, as are leukopenia and proteinuria. This early stage lasts three to five days, at which point the majority of patients will recover. Approximately 15 percent will relapse within twenty-four hours and develop a stage of "intoxication" characterized by a reocurrence and worsening of the above symptoms. Jaundice appears (hence the name "yellow fever"), and patients develop a bleeding tendency marked by blood in the vomit and stool, bruising, and bleeding from mucous membranes. Kidney failure is common. The mortality rate for this stage is over 50 percent. Treatment is supportive as there is no specific antiviral agent available.

As the clinical presentation of yellow fever is similar to that of other viral hemorrhagic fevers, the diagnosis should be confirmed in a laboratory. Diagnosis can be made by culture of the virus or by finding viral antigen in blood or liver tissue. It is also possible to identify virus-specific antibodies in blood.

A live, attenuated vaccine against yellow fever is over 95 percent effective and confers protection for ten years. As it is a live vaccine, it is contraindicated in infants under the age of six months, in pregnant women, and in immunocompromised individuals. It should be used with caution in anyone with a history of egg allergy.

The best method for control of yellow fever is mass vaccination of susceptible populations. Although the World Health Organization advocates including the yellow fever vaccine in the Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) for children, most countries use the vaccine only in outbreak situations, a strategy that has not proven to be very effective in controlling the disease.

(SEE ALSO: Communicable Disease Control; Epidemics; Vector-Borne Diseases)

Bibliography

Desowitz, R. (1997). Who Gave Pinta to the Santa Maria? Torrid Diseases in a Temperate World. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Halstead, S. (1998). "Emergence Mechanisms in Yellow Fever and Dengue." Emerging Infections 2, eds. W. M. Scheld, W. A. Craig, and J. M. Hughes. Washington, DC: ASM Press.

Robertson, S. E.; Hull, B. P.; Tomori, O.; et al. (1998). "Yellow Fever: A Decade of Re-emergence." Journal of the American Medical Association 276:1157–1162.

Tomori, O. (1999). "Impact of Yellow Fever on the Developing World." Advances in Virus Research 53:5–34.

World Health Organization (1998). "Yellow Fever." Bulletin of the World Health Organization 76 (Supp. 2):158–159.

— MARTHA FULFORD; JAY KEYSTONE


 
US Military Dictionary: yellow fever
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A tropical viral disease affecting the liver and kidneys, causing fever and jaundice and often fatal. It is transmitted by mosquitoes.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: yellow fever
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Acute infectious tropical disease, sometimes occurring in temperate zones. Abrupt onset of headache, backache, fever, nausea, and vomiting is followed by either recovery with immunity or by higher fever, slow pulse, and vomiting of blood. Patients may die in a week. Jaundice is common (hence the name). One of the world's great plagues for 300 years, it is caused by a virus transmitted by several species of mosquitoes. Carlos Finlay suggested and Walter Reed proved this means of spread, leading to near elimination of the disease through mosquito control (see William Gorgas). Treatment consists of supportive care, particularly fever reduction. Control of mosquitoes near cities and live-virus vaccines — developed by Max Theiler (1899 – 1972), who won a 1951 Nobel Prize for his work — have made yellow fever completely preventable.

For more information on yellow fever, visit Britannica.com.

 
US History Encyclopedia: Yellow Fever
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The first reference to yellow fever in America is found in that indispensable sourcebook The History of New England (1647) by John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts. The effort of the colonial court to exclude from Massachusetts the crew and the cargo of the ship that had brought the fever ("Barbados distemper") from the West Indies to America was the colonies' initial enforcement of quarantine. Later, in 1694, British ships that had sailed from Boston in an unsuccessful effort to capture Martinique brought back an epidemic of yellow fever, and subsequently, despite its endemic focus on the African coast, yellow fever emerged as a peculiarly American disease ("the American plague"). It spread through America as the African slave trade increased. With the single exception of smallpox, the most dreaded verdict on the lips of a colonial physician was "yellow fever."

The worst American epidemic of yellow fever occurred in 1793 and doomed the supremacy of Philadelphia among U.S. cities. Approximately 10 percent of the city's population died from the disease. Forty years later, the combined effects of yellow fever and cholera killed about 20 percent of the population of New Orleans. The last epidemic of yellow fever in the United States occurred in New Orleans in 1905.

Recurring epidemics of yellow fever and cholera led to the formation of municipal health boards in most major U.S. cities by mid-nineteenth century. But for much of that century, these agencies had few powers. Their lack of authority was, in part, due to distrust of the medical profession—a distrust fed by the inability of physicians to satisfactorily explain epidemic diseases. One camp of physicians argued that yellow fever was transmitted by touch and called for strict quarantines. Other physicians supported the "miasm" theory and argued that yellow fever was carried through the air by poisonous gases (miasm) emitted by rotting vegetation or dead animals. They called for swamp drainage and thorough cleaning of streets and abandoned buildings.

In 1900 the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission, with Walter Reed, James Carroll, Jesse W. Lazear, and Aristides Agramonte, was sent to track the pestilence in Cuba. The group, working with the aid of Carlos J. Finlay, demonstrated Finlay's theory that the infection is not a contagion but is transmitted by the bite of the female Aëdes aegypti mosquito. William Crawford Gorgas, chief sanitary officer of the Panama Canal Commission from 1904 until 1913, eliminated the mosquito in the region of the canal and made possible the building of the Panama Canal. Vaccines against the disease were developed in the early 1940s and today are required of anyone traveling to a hazardous area.

Bibliography

Carrigan, Jo Ann. The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796–1905. Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana, Center for Louisiana Studies, 1994.

Ellis, John H. Yellow Fever and Public Health in the New South. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992.

Foster, Kenneth R., Mary F. Jenkins, and Anna Coxe Toogood. "The Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1792." Scientific American 279, no. 2 (August 1998): 88.

Humphreys, Margaret. Yellow Fever and the South. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1992.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: yellow fever
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yellow fever, acute infectious disease endemic in tropical Africa and many areas of South America. Epidemics have extended into subtropical and temperate regions during warm seasons. In 1878 a severe outbreak in the Mississippi Valley killed about 20,000; the last epidemic in the United States occurred in New Orleans in 1905. Yellow fever is caused by a virus transmitted by the bite of the female Aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in stagnant water near human habitations. A form of the disease called sylvan yellow fever is transmitted in tropical jungles by other species of mosquitoes that live in trees.

At the end of the 19th cent., yellow fever was highly prevalent in the Caribbean, and a way of controlling it had to be found before construction of the Panama Canal could be undertaken. In 1900 an American commission headed by Walter Reed and including James Carroll, Jesse Lazear, and Aristides Agramonte gathered in the U.S. Army's Camp Columbia in Cuba. Through their experiments they proved the theory of C. J. Finlay that yellow fever was a mosquito-borne infection. Within the next few years, W. C. Gorgas, an army physician and sanitation expert, succeeded in controlling the disease in the Panama Canal Zone and other areas in that part of the world by mosquito-eradication measures. The later development of an immunizing vaccine and strict quarantine measures against ships, planes, and passengers coming from known or suspected yellow-fever areas further aided control of the disease.

Yellow fever begins suddenly after an incubation period of three to five days. In mild cases only fever and headache may be present. The severe form of the disease commences with fever, chills, bleeding into the skin, rapid heartbeat, headache, back pains, and extreme prostration. Nausea, vomiting, and constipation are common. Jaundice usually appears on the second or third day. After the third day the symptoms recede, only to return with increased severity in the final stage, during which there is a marked tendency to hemorrhage internally; the characteristic “coffee ground” vomitus contains blood. The patient then lapses into delirium and coma, often followed by death. During epidemics the fatality rate was often as high as 85%. Although the disease still occurs, it is usually confined to sporadic outbreaks.

Bibliography

See study by M. C. Crosby (2006).

 
Wikipedia: Yellow fever
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For other uses, see Yellow fever (disambiguation).
"American Plague" redirects here. For the rock band, see The American Plague.
Yellow fever
Classification and external resources
Yellow fever virus
ICD-10 A95.
ICD-9 060
DiseasesDB 14203
MedlinePlus 001365
eMedicine med/2432  emerg/645
MeSH D015004

Yellow fever (also called yellow jack or sometimes black vomit or American Plague)[1] is an acute viral disease.[2] It is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes (the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, and other species). Yellow fever is an important cause of hemorrhagic illness in many African and South American countries despite existence of an effective vaccine. The yellow refers to the jaundice symptoms that affect some patients.[3]

Yellow fever has been a source of many devastating epidemics.[4] Yellow fever epidemics broke out in the 1700s and 1900s in Italy, France, Spain, England, and the United States.[5] Three hundred thousand people are believed to have died from yellow fever in Spain during the 19th century.[6] French soldiers were attacked by yellow fever during the 1802 Haitian Revolution; more than half of the army perished from the disease.[7] Outbreaks followed by thousands of deaths occurred periodically in other Western Hemisphere locations until research, which included human volunteers (some of whom died), led to an understanding of the method of transmission to humans (primarily by mosquitos) and development of a vaccine and other preventive efforts in the early 20th century.

Despite the breakthrough research of Cuban physician Carlos Finlay, American physician Walter Reed, and many others over 100 years ago, non-vaccinated populations in many developing nations in Africa and Central/South America continue to be at risk.[8] As of 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that yellow fever causes 200,000 illnesses and 30,000 deaths every year in unvaccinated populations.[9]

Contents

Signs and symptoms

Yellow fever begins suddenly after an incubation period of three to five days in the human body. In mild cases only fever and headache may be present. Within 24 hours about 15% develop a more severe form, in which they enter the "toxic phase" characterized by fever, chills, bleeding into the skin, paradoxically slow heartbeat, headache, back pains, and extreme prostration.[10] Nausea, vomiting, and constipation are common. Jaundice usually appears on the second or third day. After the third day the symptoms recede, only to return with increased severity in the final stage, during which there is a marked tendency to hemorrhage internally; the characteristic "coffee ground" vomitus contains blood. The patient then lapses into delirium and coma, followed by death in about 50% of those who enter the toxic phase.[11] During epidemics a much higher proportion have entered the toxic phase, and the fatality rate has been as high as 85%. Although the disease still occurs, it is usually confined to sporadic outbreaks.

Cause

Yellow fever is caused by yellow fever virus, a flavivirus of the family Flaviviridae, a positive sense single-stranded RNA virus.

Pathogenesis

Endemic range of yellow fever in Africa (2005)
Endemic range of yellow fever in South America (2005)

Human infection begins after deposition of viral particles through the skin in infected arthropod saliva, hence it is considered an arbovirus. The mosquitoes involved are Aedes simpsaloni, A. africanus, and A. aegypti in Africa, the Haemagogus genus in South America,[9] and the Sabethes genus in France.

Yellow fever is frequently severe but moderate cases may occur as the result of previous infection by another flavivirus. After infection the virus first replicates locally, followed by transportation to the rest of the body via the lymphatic system.[12] Following systemic lymphatic infection the virus proceeds to establish itself throughout organ systems, including the heart, kidneys, adrenal glands, and the parenchyma of the liver; high viral loads are also present in the blood.[2] Necrotic masses (Councilman bodies) appear in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes.[12][13]

There is a difference between disease outbreaks in rural or forest areas ("jungle cycle") and in towns ("urban cycle").[14] Disease outbreaks in towns and non-native people may be more serious because of higher densities of mosquito vectors and higher population densities.[15]

Prevention

This section requires expansion with:
Mosquito control.
Main article: Yellow fever vaccine

In 1937, Max Theiler, working at the Rockefeller Foundation, developed a safe and highly efficacious vaccine for yellow fever that gives a ten-year or more immunity from the virus. Other steps to prevent yellow fever include use of insect repellent and protective clothing. [16]

Treatment

There is no true cure for yellow fever, therefore vaccination is important. Treatment is symptomatic and supportive only. Fluid replacement, fighting hypotension and transfusion of blood derivates is generally needed only in severe cases. In cases that result in acute renal failure, dialysis may be necessary.

Prognosis

Historical reports have claimed a mortality rate of between 1 in 17 (5.8%) and 1 in 3 (33%). CDC has claimed that case-fatality rates from severe disease range from 15% to more than 50%.[17] The WHO factsheet on yellow fever, updated in 2001, states that 15% of patients enter a "toxic phase" and that half of that number die within ten to fourteen days, with the other half recovering.[18]

Epidemiology

As of 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that yellow fever causes 200,000 illnesses and 30,000 deaths every year in unvaccinated populations.[9]

History

Photograph taken during the 1965 Aedes aegypti eradication program in Miami, Florida

West Africa has long been regarded as the home of yellow fever.[1] Yellow fever has had an important role in the history of Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean.

Cuba: 1762–1763

British and American colonial troops died by the thousands in the British expedition against Cuba between 1762 and 1763. Epidemics struck coastal and island communities throughout the area during the next 140 years, with 10% of the population dying as a result.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 1793

The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 killed as many as 10,000 people in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[19] Thousands, including President George Washington, fled the city, including most members of the Federal (Philadelphia was the capital of the United States at this time) and city governments. As a result, civil services collapsed and almost vanished. However, the mayor remained and eventually, with the help of a "Committee of Twenty" composed of volunteer residents drawn from all walks of life, order and civil services were restored.[20] Members of the Free African Society, a charitable organization of African-Americans originally founded as a self-help group, were instrumental in this regard. They served as nurses and home-care attendants, often for no pay, and Mayor William Clarkson later praised their work when racist claims of price-gouging and theft were raised.[20]

The first family of Dolley Madison, neé Dolley Payne, who would later become First Lady of the United States during James Madison's administration, was stricken in this epidemic. John Todd, Dolley's husband, was a Quaker and a lawyer. He felt it was his duty to remain in Philadelphia and provide legal services (wills, probate, etc.) to those who were dying or the families of those who died. However, he moved his family across the river. One day on a visit to his family, he collapsed into his wife's arms on the doorstep of their house and died soon after. Dolley and her eldest son, John Payne Todd, contracted yellow fever but survived. Dolley's youngest son William Temple Todd and John's parents also perished in the 1793 epidemic.[20] Alexander Hamilton and his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler, contracted yellow fever but survived.

Dr. Benjamin Rush also contracted yellow fever, but survived. His fame, as a signer of the Declaration of Independence and as head medical doctor for the American army in the middle Atlantic states region during the American Revolution, brought him hundreds, perhaps thousands, of patients during this epidemic. His methods were severe and split the medical community at that time, resulting in an ongoing letter-writing war in the press both during and after the epidemic. However, unlike a number of other doctors, he remained in Philadelphia and did his best to help the residents who were struck down by the disease.[21]

At the time of the Philadelphia epidemic, the most widespread belief was that the disease spread via contaminated water. A "Watering Committee" was appointed and recommended a municipal water supply, which came into use in 1801 (the initial installation, by Benjamin Latrobe, was inefficient and unreliable, and was replaced in 1812-1815). Of course the water system did nothing directly to alleviate yellow fever, but it allowed city residents to remove their makeshift arrangements of wells and cisterns, which had provided breeding places for mosquitoes. Thus, the desired effect was actually achieved.

Haiti: 1802

In 1802, an army of forty thousand sent by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte of France to Haiti to suppress the Haitian Revolution was decimated by an epidemic of yellow fever (including the expedition's commander and Bonaparte's brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc). Some historians believe Haiti was to be a staging point for an invasion of the United States through Louisiana (then still under French control).[22]

New Orleans, Louisiana: 1853

This outbreak claimed 7,849 residents of New Orleans. The press and the medical profession did not alert citizens of the outbreak until the middle of July, after over a thousand had already died. The reason for this silence was that the New Orleans business community feared that word of an epidemic would cause a quarantine to be placed on the city, and commerce would thus be hurt.

Norfolk, Virginia: 1855

A ship carrying persons infected with the virus arrived in Hampton Roads in southeastern Virginia in June 1855.[17] The disease spread quickly through the community, eventually killing over 3,000 people, mostly residents of Norfolk and Portsmouth. The Howard Association, a benevolent organization, was formed to help coordinate assistance in the form of funds, supplies, and medical professionals and volunteers which poured in from many other areas, particularly the Atlantic and Gulf Coast areas of the United States.

Memphis, Tennessee: 1878

There were several outbreaks of yellow fever in Memphis during the 1870s, culminating in the devastating 1878 epidemic, with over 5,000 fatalities in the city itself and 20,000 along the whole of the Mississippi River Valley. It has been claimed that the large death toll was due to commercial interests taking precedence over reporting the outbreak of yellow fever.[23]

The French Panama Canal Effort: 1882–1889

The French effort to build a Panama Canal was fatally damaged by the prevalence of endemic tropical diseases in the Isthmus. Although malaria was also a serious problem for the French canal builders, the numerous yellow fever fatalities and the fear they engendered made it difficult for the French company to retain sufficient technical staff to sustain the effort. Since the mode of transmission of the disease was unknown, the French response to the disease was limited to care of the sick. Unfortunately, the French hospitals contained many pools of stagnant water, such as basins underneath potted plants, in which mosquitoes could breed. The eventual failure, as a result of the deaths, of the French company licensed to build the canal resulted in a massive financial crisis in France.[24]

Carlos Finlay and Walter Reed

An entomologist demonstrates the attraction of female yellow fever mosquitoes to his hand in an olfactometer.
Adults of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti. The male on the left, females on the right. Only the female mosquito bites and can transmit the disease.

Carlos Finlay, a Cuban doctor and scientist, first proposed proofs in 1881 that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than direct human contact.[25] Walter Reed, M.D., (1851–1902) was an American Army surgeon who led a team that confirmed Finlay's theory. This risky but fruitful research work was done with human volunteers, including some of the medical personnel, such as Clara Maass and Walter Reed Medal winner surgeon Jesse William Lazear, who allowed themselves to be deliberately infected and died of the virus.[26] Although Dr. Reed received much of the credit in history books for "beating" yellow fever, Reed himself credited Dr. Finlay with the discovery of the yellow fever vector, and thus how it might be controlled. Dr. Reed often cited Finlay's papers in his own articles and gave him credit for the discovery, even in his personal correspondence.[27] The acceptance of Finlay's work was one of the most important and far-reaching effects of the Walter Reed Commission of 1900.[28] Applying methods first suggested by Finlay, the elimination of yellow fever from Cuba was completed, as well as the completion of the Panama Canal. Lamentably, almost 20 years had passed before Reed and his Board began their efforts, twenty years during which most of the scientific community ignored Finlay's theory of mosquito transmission.

Finlay and Reed's work was put to the test for the first time in the United States when a yellow fever epidemic struck New Orleans in 1905, although efforts had been successful in Havana since 1901. A conference organized in New Orleans in 1905 by Dr. A. L. Metz resulted in President Roosevelt directing the United States' Government to take control of the matter.[29] The United States Public Health Service put into effect a mosquito control campaign,[30] this included, fumigating houses, inspecting cisterns for drinking water, and treating pools of standing water with kerosene. The result was that the death toll from the epidemic was much lower than that from previous yellow fever epidemics, and that there has not been a major outbreak of the disease in the United States since. Although no cure has yet been discovered, an effective vaccine has been developed, which can prevent and help people recover from the disease.Yellow fever can turn into a deadly disease if it is not treated properly.

Current research

In the hamster model of yellow fever, early administration of the antiviral ribavirin is an effective early treatment of many pathological features of the disease.[31] Ribavirin treatment during the first five days after virus infection improved survival rates, reduced tissue damage in target organs (liver and spleen), prevented hepatocellular steatosis, and normalized alanine aminotransferase (a liver damage marker) levels. The results of this study suggest that ribavirin may be effective in the early treatment of yellow fever, and that its mechanism of action in reducing liver pathology in yellow fever virus infection may be similar to that observed with ribavirin in the treatment of hepatitis C, a virus related to yellow fever.[31] Because ribavirin had failed to improve survival in a virulent primate (rhesus) model of yellow fever infection, it had been previously discounted as a possible therapy.[32]

In the past, yellow fever has been researched by several countries as a potential biological weapon.[33]

References

  1. ^ a b Yellow Fever. Encyclopædia Britannica.
  2. ^ a b Schmaljohn AL, McClain D. (1996). "Alphaviruses (Togaviridae) and Flaviviruses (Flaviviridae)". in Baron S. Medical Microbiology (4th ed.). Univ of Texas Medical Branch. ISBN 0-9631172-1-1. 
  3. ^ Anker M, Schaaf D, et al. (2000-01-07). "WHO Report on Global Surveillance of Epidemic-prone Infectious Diseases" (PDF). WHO. 11. http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/surveillance/WHO_Report_Infectious_Diseases.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-06-11. 
  4. ^ Yellow Fever - LoveToKnow 1911.
  5. ^ TKH Virology Notes: Yellow Fever.
  6. ^ Tiger mosquitoes and the history of yellow fever and dengue in Spain.
  7. ^ Bollet, AJ (2004). Plagues and Poxes: The Impact of Human History on Epidemic Disease. Demos Medical Publishing. pp. 48–9. ISBN 188879979X. 
  8. ^ Tomori O (2002). "Yellow fever in Africa: public health impact and prospects for control in the 21st century". Biomedica 22 (2): 178–210. PMID 12152484. 
  9. ^ a b c "Yellow fever fact sheet". WHO—Yellow fever. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs100/en/. Retrieved on 2006-04-18. 
  10. ^ WHO Yellow fever fact sheet.
  11. ^ WHO Yellow fever fact sheet.
  12. ^ a b Ryan KJ; Ray CG (editors) (2004). Sherris Medical Microbiology (4th ed.). McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-8385-8529-9. 
  13. ^ Quaresma JA, Barros VL, Pagliari C, Fernandes ER, Guedes F, Takakura CF, Andrade HF Jr, Vasconcelos PF, Duarte MI (2006). "Revisiting the liver in human yellow fever: virus-induced apoptosis in hepatocytes associated with TGF-beta, TNF-alpha and NK cells activity". Virology 345 (1): 22–30. doi:10.1016/j.virol.2005.09.058. PMID 16278000. 
  14. ^ "Arboviruses and other zoonotic viruses". http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/mhunt/arbo.htm. Retrieved on 2009-03-07. 
  15. ^ Barnett, ED (March 2007). "Yellow fever: epidemiology and prevention". Clin Infect Dis 44 (6): 850–6. doi:10.1086/511869. 
  16. ^ http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/YellowFever/index.html/
  17. ^ a b Mauer HB. "Mosquito control ends fatal plague of yellow fever". etext.lib.virginia.edu. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/fever-browse?id=N2659002. Retrieved on 2007-06-11 2006.  (undated newspaper clipping).
  18. ^ "WHO Yellow Fever Fact Sheet". http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs100/en/. Retrieved on 2007-02-22. 
  19. ^ "Yellow Fever Attacks Philadelphia, 1793". EyeWitness to History. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/yellowfever.htm. Retrieved on 2007-06-22. 
  20. ^ a b c Murphy, J. 2003. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. Clarion Books. ISBN 0-395-77608-2.
  21. ^ Powell, J.H. 1949. Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague Of Yellow Fever In Philadelphia In 1793. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 1432576623.
  22. ^ Bruns, Roger (2000). Almost History: Close Calls, Plan B's, and Twists of Fate in American History. Hyperion. ISBN 0786885793. 
  23. ^ Crosby, MC. 2006. The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History. Berkley Books. ISBN 0-425-21202-5.
  24. ^ The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914, David McCullough, Simon & Schuster, 1978 (a comprehensive history of the building of the canal).
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External links

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Zoonotic Viral diseases (A80-B34, 042-079)
Arthropod/
(Arbovirus)
Mammal
Puumala virus · Andes virus · Sin Nombre virus · Hantavirus infection (HV)
Multiple

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