Books - Walter Reed

Product Description:
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.



Customer Review: Excellent History:
The summary is a bit misleading (hence only 4 stars) in that it states that it will explain what it was like for people living in the time. It didn't do this (try reading Fever 1793, a fictionalized account of the yellow fever epidemic for this) but it did provide an excellent historical account of yellow fever and the attempt to deal with it. The book sometimes rambled, giving the history of where people were born and such, that was not important to the historical accuracy of the book but it was not annoying enough to make me stop reading. This is not a light read - I have no medical background and struggled with some of the terminology but found it a compelling account. The author did an excellent job of turning something that could be boring as sawdust and making it come alive as the men struggled to put an end to this devastating diease.

Customer Review: most interesting:
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.

Customer Review: Yellow Fever - The Journey of its Cause:
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.

Customer Review: The eradication of yellow fever was one of the great achievements of the 20th century:
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.

Customer Review: Scary History of Yellow Fever in N. America:
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.

Product Description:
Story of Army Dr. Walter Reed's successful efforts in post-Spanish-American-War Cuba to identify & defeat yellow fever.

Product Description:
This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The length of the article is 1727 words. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century.

Product Description:
A biography of the Army doctor who is best known for his discovery of the way in which yellow fever is spread.

Product Description:
This digital document is an article from The Dental Assistant, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2006. The length of the article is 897 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Army Dental Research?(The Army Goes Rolling Along...)(United States Army Dental & Trauma Research Detachment)
Author: Tina Campbell
Publication: The Dental Assistant (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 75 Issue: 6 Page: 16(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Product Description:
This digital document is an article from Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by Thomson Gale on August 1, 2007. The length of the article is 2160 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Atypical Q fever in US soldiers.(DISPATCHES)(Disease/Disorder overview)
Author: Joshua D. Hartzell
Publication: Emerging Infectious Diseases (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 13 Issue: 8 Page: 1247(3)

Article Type: Disease/Disorder overview

Distributed by Thomson Gale