YELLOW FEVER IN CUBA

In 1900, yellow fever was one of the most feared diseases of the time, with a mortality rate of 85%, little to no knowledge of what the disease was, and no cure in sight. In an effort to learn more about the disease, the American Surgeon General sent Walter Reed and a team of scientists to a military base in Cuba to study the disease. The trial was broken down into three phases. The first phase dealt mostly with the team and board members self-inoculating themselves with infected mosquitoes, as these bugs were believed to be inhibiting the disease in some way.

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After a few team members died from the disease, Reed returned to Cuba to help run the trials and set up protocols, one of which was a written consent document for those who volunteered for the trial. By Phase III, four Americans, and six Cubans were involved in the trial, all there for a monetary reward they would get if volunteered and contracted yellow fever. The mindset of many volunteers was the probability of getting yellow fever was high, so might as well get paid for it and treated within a military facility versus dealing with it on their own. Fatalities were high throughout the trials, yet volunteers continued to step forward out of fear of openly contracting the disease.

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Citations

Cutter, Laura. “MA, MLIS, Walter Reed, Yellow Fever, and Informed Consent”. Military Medicine, Volume 181, Issue 1, January 2016, Pages 90–91, https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00430.

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Everett Collection Historical. (1899) Men’s Ward Yellow Fever Hospital [Image]. HistoryNet.

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Mehra, Akhil. “Virtual Mentor”. 2009;11(4):326-330.

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“Military orders for Walter Reed”,  November 3, 1902, Box-folder 26:28, Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection 1806-1995, Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia.

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National Library Of Medicine/science Photo Library. (2018). Yellow Fever Fumigation [Image]. Fineartamerica.

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“Report for Walter Reed”, July 17, 1901, Box-folder 24:1, Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection 1806-1995, Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia

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“Walter Reed, 1901”, Box-folder 87:38, Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection 1806-1995, Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia.