History of walter reed

Their fellow officers without yellow fever did not do so. Reed also proved that the local civilians drinking from the Potomac River had no relation to the incidence of the disease. Reed traveled to Cuba to study diseases in U. Army encampments there during the Spanish—American War. Appointed chairman of a panel formed in to investigate an epidemic of typhoid feverReed and his colleagues showed that contact with fecal matter and food or drink contaminated by flies caused that epidemic.

Yellow history of walter reed also became a problem for the Army during this time, felling thousands of soldiers in Cuba. In MayMajor Reed returned to Cuba when he was appointed head of an investigative board charged by Army Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg to study tropical diseases, particularly yellow fever. Sternberg was an early expert in bacteriology during a time of great advances due to widespread acceptance of the germ theory of disease and new methods for studying microbial infections.

During Reed's leadership of the U. Army Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba, the Board demonstrated that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes and disproved the common belief that it was transmitted by fomites clothing and bedding soiled by the body fluids and excrement of yellow fever victims. These points were demonstrated in a dramatic series of experiments at the US Army's Camp Lazear, named in November for Reed's assistant and friend Jesse William Lazearwho had died of yellow fever while working on the project.

This dangerous research was done using human volunteers, including some of the medical personnel, who allowed themselves to be bitten by mosquitos infected with yellow fever. The conclusions from this research were soon applied in Panama, where mosquito eradication was largely responsible for stemming the incidence of yellow fever during the construction of the Panama Canal.

Epidemics of yellow fever in Panama had confounded French attempts to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama only 20 years earlier. Although Reed received much of the credit for "beating" yellow fever, Reed himself credited Cuban medical scientist Carlos Finlay with identifying a mosquito as the vector of yellow fever and proposing how the disease might be controlled.

Reed often cited Finlay in his own articles and gave him credit for the idea in his personal correspondence. The Cuban physician was a persistent advocate of the hypothesis that mosquitos were the vector of yellow fever and correctly identified the species that transmits the disease. His experiments to prove the hypothesis were discounted by many medical experts, but served as the basis for Reed's research.

Reed returned from Cuba incontinuing to speak and publish on the topic of yellow fever. In recognition of his research, Reed received honorary degrees from Harvard and the University of Michigan. In NovemberReed suffered a ruptured appendix. He died on November 23,of the resulting peritonitisat age He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Reed's breakthrough in yellow fever research is widely considered a milestone in biomedicine, opening new vistas of research and humanitarianism. It was largely an extension of Carlos J. Finlay's work, carried out during the s in Cuba, which finally came to prominence in Finlay was the first to theorize, inthat a mosquito was a carrier, now known as a disease vector, of the organism causing yellow fever: a mosquito that bites a victim of the disease could subsequently bite and thereby infect a healthy person.

He presented this theory at the International Sanitary Conference, where it was well received. A year later Finlay identified a mosquito of the genus Aedes as the organism transmitting yellow fever. His theory was followed by the recommendation to control the mosquito population as a way to control the spread of the disease.

History of walter reed: Walter Reed General Hospital opened

This discovery helped William C. Later, he became a professor of bacteriology at what is now George Washington University. Walter Reed A yellow fever patient rests in a segregated, screened-in cubicle in Gorgas Hospital, a U. Army hospital in Panama City, Panama, in the early s. In the latter half of the s, typhoid ravaged armies gathering for war.

Of the more than 2 million men who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, more than 79, typhoid cases and nearly 30, typhoid deaths were reported, according to the Rand National Defense Research Institute. The report also stated that of the nearlysoldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War, 21, contracted typhoid and nearly 1, died from it.

Census data showed that inabout 5. In comparison, as of Feb. Meanwhile, yellow fever was ravaging southeastern states. It was also rampant in Havana, where troops fought the Spanish-American War in and remained for a few years as part of an occupation force. According to military medical data, more of these soldiers died from yellow fever and other diseases than in battle.

In the late s, he led investigations at U. ByReed was appointed to head the four-person Yellow Fever Commission to investigate infectious diseases in Cuba. The Army researchers focused their attention on the mosquito, which had been discovered to be behind the transmission of malaria. Walter Reed, was the first recorded use of informed consent in human research.

As this consent form shows, researchers wanted to be certain that volunteers understood the potential hazards. From there, they opened a nearby camp using American and Spanish volunteers and developed 22 more cases through controlled experiments. Reed, Myrtle — Reed, Mary — Reed, Lou —. Reed, Kit —. Reed, William Henry. Reed, William L eonard.

Reed, Willis, Jr. Reed-Danahay, Deborah Reed: Insurgent Mexico. Reeder, Carolyn Reeder, Stephanie Owen. Reedley College: Narrative Description. Medical officer in the United States Army who helped demonstrate how to history of walter reed yellow and typhoid fevers. Between and Reed led two commissions to study the origin and spread of infectious epidemics in army camps.

His experiments proved that flies were the predominant carriers of typhoid fever and that unsanitary conditions helped spread it. Reed's experiments focusing on yellow fever established that the bite of certain mosquitoes transmitted the disease. His team conducted a series of daring experiments in which physicians and soldiers volunteered to be infected by yellow fever germs, so that they could determine the course of the disease and how it might be controlled.

American physician, military surgeon, and epidemiologist whose discovery in that the aedes aegypti mosquito is the vector of yellow fever soon led to the control and conquest of this disease. Yellow fever is a tropical viral hepatitis.

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For centuries it was among the most feared plagues in the world. Carlos Juan Finlay expressed the mosquito vector theory inbut only after Reed's work could William Crawford Gorgas institute the effective public health policies that eliminated yellow fever from Havana, Cuba, by Reed, Walter gale. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia.

Walter Reed gale. Further Reading Howard A. Reed, Walter oxford.

History of walter reed: As the study of

Reed, Walter —medical officer and research scientist. After receiving his M. By establishing human waste as the source of contamination, the board made possible effective public health measures to prevent future epidemics. When, inanother board headed by Reed proved that yellow fevermuch dreaded by soldiers sent to Cubawas carried by a mosquito and identified the specific mosquito, successful efforts to reduce this threat to public health also became possible.

Reed's accomplishments resulted not only from his personal skills as a research scientist but from the disciplined world in which he worked: medical officers were often better able than their civilian counterparts to conduct the studies necessary to identify both major diseases that threatened public health and the means by which they spread in civilian and military communities alike.

Military Involvement in ; Disease, Tropical. Mary C. Walter Reed Medical officer in the United States Army who helped demonstrate how to control yellow and typhoid fevers. Walter Reed American physician, military surgeon, and epidemiologist whose discovery in that the aedes aegypti mosquito is the vector of yellow fever soon led to the control and conquest of this disease.

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