8,078
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
→History of treatment
==History of treatment==
Prior to the early 1900s, it was not generally understood that yellow fever is transmitted not by person-to-person contact, but by mosquitoes. The first scientific evidence that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes was obtained by Cuban physician and scientist [[Wikipedia:Carlos Finlay|Carlos Finlay]] in 1881, but his research was not generally accepted until a team lead by [[Wikipedia:Walter Reed|Walter Reed]] reached the same conclusion in 1901.
In 1884, after a particularly harsh epidemic two years prior, the Board of Health instituted a policy of refusing harbor entry to suspect vessels. The first vessel excluded was the bark ''Kedron'' of Rio de Janeiro. The ''Kedron'' then sailed for Quebec and lost her captain en route from yellow fever.
After the epidemic of 1905, the swamps around Pensacola were drained, resulting in the eradication of yellow fever in the area.<ref name="bigler">[http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Disease_ctrl/epi/Epi_Updates/1999/eu990415.html Bigler, William J. "Florida Past: Roots of Public Health in Escambia County"]</ref>
