Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets [Hardcover]

John R. Pierce (Author), James V. Writer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0471472611 | ISBN-13: 978-0471472612 | Edition: 1

The end of a scourge

"The prayer that has been mine for twenty years, that I might be permitted in some way or some time to do something to alleviate human suffering, has been answered!"
--Major Walter Reed, writing to his wife, New Year's Eve, 1900

As he wrote to his wife of his stunning success in the mission to identify the cause of yellow fever and find a way to eradicate the disease, Walter Reed had answered the prayers of millions. For more than 250 years, the yellow jack had ravaged the Americas, bringing death to millions and striking panic in entire populations. The very mention of its presence in a city or town produced instant chaos as thousands fled in terror, leaving the frail, the weak, and the ill to fend for themselves.

Yellow Jack tracks the history of this deadly scourge from its earliest appearance in the Caribbean 350 years ago, telling the compelling story of a few extraordinarily brave souls who struggled to understand and eradicate yellow fever. Risking everything for the cause of science and humanity, Reed and his teammates on the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board invaded the heart of enemy territory in Cuba to pursue the disease--and made one of the twentieth century's greatest medical discoveries. This thrilling adventure tells the timeless tale of their courage, ingenuity, and triumph in the face of adversity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There isn't much new in this workmanlike examination of yellow fever, which focuses on the American impact of this deadly hemorrhagic disease closely related to the West Nile virus. While mostly a tropical disease, yellow fever reached as far north as Philadelphia in 1793. But particularly in the South, deadly plagues were the norm year after year. Pierce, a physician and retired colonel with the U.S. Army, and coauthor Writer describe the debates over the cause of the disease, which many thought originated in the Caribbean, and the work to determine the mode of transmission. In 1900, after the Spanish-American War, Walter Reed headed the Yellow Fever Board sent to Havana and rather quickly confirmed earlier suspicions that mosquitoes were responsible; in remarkably short order the board rid the entire island of yellow fever. But the disease's virulence and the harsh working conditions threatened the researchers themselves. The authors explain this in their hyperbolic style: "Eight loyal and fearless soldiers in the war against an invisible foe had, in the noblest sentiments of the profession, died in hopes of saving others.... [N]o other virus in the history of laboratory research has taken away so many of those working to solve its mysteries." B&w illus. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

From the first time an illness with symptoms like those of yellow fever was reported in the Spanish stronghold at Yucatan and spreading to Havana, Cuba, reduced its population by a third, it took nearly 300 years to pinpoint the cause of that fatal disease. The long effort suffered not from want of trying, according to U.S. Army physician Pierce. Some of the most notable medical minds of their times, including the renowned Benjamin Rush, tackled the puzzle with negligible success. Stubbornly perennial as summer heat, yellow fever continued to wreak havoc in U.S. cities from Philadelphia to New Orleans. Despite the connection French physician Louis Daniel Beauperthuy made in the mid-nineteenth century between yellow fever and mosquitoes, not until after the Spanish-American War did Major Walter Reed and his medical team make serious inroads into cause and cure. Based upon a series of articles Pierce penned for a military medical journal, this chronicle of the rise and eventual fall of yellow fever traces a substantial medical history. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471472611
• ISBN-13: 978-0471472612
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #145,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scary History of Yellow Fever in N. America, June 20, 2005

By 

Skylark Thibedeau (Charlotte, NC USA, Terra, Solaris System, Milky Way Galaxy.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets (Hardcover)

Up until about 100 years ago every summer in the South was met with dread as the Yellow Jack would invade cities and the epidemics would last until the first frost.

This book provides a history of those dark days and the triumphs and tragedies of the group of Scientists and Doctors such as Walter Reed who studied and fought the disease that killed more americans than Spanish bullets during the Spanish American War.

Yellow Fever spread to the New World from Africa carried over by mosquito larvae in the water casks of European Slave ships ferrying Africans to the Dread Sugar plantations of the Carribean. Trading ships from the Carribean would frequently land in american ports carrying the mosquitoes and people infected with yellow fever frequently causing epidemics along the atlantic coasts plagueing such modern urban areas as Philadelphia and Baltimore.

This history of yellow fever shows why there is so much concern today with imported diseases such as West Nile and Avian Flu.

The book is also a good history in the advance of science and medicine since the 18th century as peominent American physicians of the 1780's still bled their patients to balance their humours and blamed the epidemic on stinky garbage vapours while in the 1890's the doctors were seeking out an insectivoid vector for the disease.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars most interesting, April 3, 2006

By 

Glenn Yates (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets (Hardcover)

Seemed to be a well researched and well written book, and a fascinating topic. On the cusp of a sea change in medicine worldwide, these Doctors on the frontier like Walter Reed, Carlos Finlay (of Cuba), and William Gorgas helped to nearly eradicate a once deadly illness through creative reasoning and disciplined scientific method. While not a complete page-turner, and not quite able to transport the reader to the time and place-I still found it to be a well organized, informative, and ultimately interesting book. It's not long and easily worth the time. I got interested in this subject after reading a David McCullough book about the Panama Canal, a project that most likely would not have been attempted by the U.S. had not the centuries old myster of the cause of Yellow Fever been at last solved.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yellow Fever - The Journey of its Cause, February 4, 2006

By 

PAD (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets (Hardcover)

Highly recommended. From the start just like a good mystery, this book grips and holds your attention as it unfolds the discovery of what causes yellow fever. The rolls of the individuals in academia and medicine are insightful. Vivid descriptions portray the full affect of both the human and economic devastation caused by this disease. Had is not been for the few couragous individuals who chose to pursue their beliefs and instincts against the mainstream beliefs of the day, there is no telling when the cause may have been discovered. Their stories are amazing as well. The book is factual and well documented. The challenges faced by the individuals, cities, and countries during the time of the book are not unlike those faced today in searching for the cause and cure of illnesses such as West Nile or the flu.