Solving the Mystery of the Yellow Fever Disease: It's History and a Possible Solution
Research Writing Stem 2014
Introduction
Yellow Fever (YF) is an acute viral infectious disease usually found in Africa and South America (see Figure 1 and 2). The two main classifications of yellow fever are: Jungle Yellow Fever spread by jungle mosquitoes which mainly affects monkeys and Urban Yellow Fever that is spread when Aedes aegypti mosquito bites an infected human or monkey and then goes on to bite other people (see Figure 3) (Undschuh, Matthias, Groneberg, David, Klingelhoefer, Doris, Gerber, Alexander 2013). It is characterized by variable symptoms ranging from a minimal flu-like illness to death. The research on YF is very extensive. This is shown in the scientific journal article by Parasite & Vectors who's overall goal was to provide an in depth evaluation of the YF field using large-scale data analysis from 1902 thru 2012 with a total of 5053 YF associated items being published by 79 countries (Undschuh 2013).The
Gelbfieber in Südamerika 2009. Yellow fever in So...
English: Yellow fever map CDC
English: Aedes aegypti in Dar es Salaam, Tanzaniahighest publication rate was 42% from the United States of America. Concluding how YF is still today a major public health issue (Undschuh, 2013).
History
Yellow Fever was discovered by U.S. Army physician James Carroll after endangering his own health by allowing an infected mosquito to bite him on August 27th, 1900 (www.americaslibrary.gov N.D). Although Carroll became sick and developed a severe case of YF it helped his colleague, Walter Reed prove that mosquitoes transmitted the disease. It is noted that in 1881, Carlos J. Finlay a Cuban scientist had first proposed that the mosquito was the vector of transmission of YF. Finlay however was not able to prove it (www.americaslibrary.gov N.D.). The first definitive evidence of YF in the Americas was in Mayan manuscripts describing an outbreak of the...