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

~ (Author), James V. Writer (Author) "THE HOUSTON OIL AND GAS EXECUTIVE TOM MCCULLOUGH PRE-sented at a Corpus Christi, Texas, emergency room on March 10, 2002, complaining of abdominal pain, severe..." (more)
Key Phrases: loaded mosquitoes, mosquito experiments, yellow fever germ, United States, Walter Reed, New Orleans (more...)

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.)
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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: 9.1 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.com Sales Rank: #352,718 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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 "Skylark" (Charlotte, NC USA, Terra, Solaris System, Milky Way Galaxy.) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The eradication of yellow fever was one of the great achievements of the 20th century, August 30, 2005

By	Paul Tognetti "The real world is so much more... (Cranston, RI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Yellow fever first appeared in the Carribean over 350 years ago.
This was a devasting illness that claimed the lives of roughly 20% of it's victims. The disease went virtually unchecked for well over 200 years and wreaked havoc in Cuba, Hispaniola and throughout South America. The cause was unknown. It would kill millions. As international trade grew in the latter part of the 18th century, epidemics of yellow fever would spread north to many cities in the United States as well. Outbreaks would occur as far north as Boston and New York. In 1793, a historic outbreak in the city of Philadelphia would claim more than 5000 lives, roughly 10% of the city's population. By the mid to late nineteenth century it was becoming abundantly clear that uncovering the cause of and ultimately finding a cure for this scourge was becoming a top priority for the U.S. government. In "Yellow Jack" authors John R. Pierce and Jim Writer tell the remarkable story of those committed doctors and scientists who would put so much on the line in a heroic attempt to unravel this complex and often frustrating medical mystery.
Carlos Juan Finlay, a researcher working in Cuba in the 1880's and 1890's, is generally credited as the first to identify a particular species of mosquito as being responsible for the transmission of yellow fever. His theory was quite controversial and it would be a quarter century before his suspicions would be confirmed. The conventional wisdom at that time was that the disease was highly contagious and could be transmitted by what was then known as "fomites". Pierce and Writer explain that fomites are "all contaminated objects or materials from yellow fever patients (clothing, bedding, furniture and so on)". Most medical experts also attributed the spread of the disease to unsanitary conditions. Many would point to the filthy conditions that existed in the island nation of Cuba as the likely source of the disease.
As unlikely as it might seem, the sinking of the battleship USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 would act as a kind of catalyst in solving the riddle of yellow fever. President William Mckinley issued a call for 125,000 volunteers and war was declared on Spain. Among those who would serve with distinction in Cuba was future President Theodore Roosevelt. Seeking to avoid a devastating loss of life among U.S. troops being sent to the Carribean, U.S. Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg would appoint what would become known as the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board, a four man panel led by Major Walter Reed. The group was essentially charged with investigating infectious diseases on the island of Cuba. There was an awful lot at stake and the urgency of their mission cannot be underestimated. Enlisting in the battle against yellow fever was not for the faint of heart.
The second half of "Yellow Jack" is more or less devoted to the work of the U.S Army Yellow Fever Board. Pierce and Writer have done an outstanding job in recounting the events that would ultimately lead to the eradication of this most dreaded disease. I think you will find that "Yellow Jack" is a very well written book that will hold your attention from cover to cover. Highly recommended.

4 of 4 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)

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.