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

by John R. Pierce, Jim Writer

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.

Genres: History, Science, Medicine, Nonfiction

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2005

About the author

John Robinson Pierce (John R.^^Pierce)

Reviews

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Illustrates very clearly why you want a yellow fever vaccine if you are traveling south out of North America. Yellow fever still strikes thousands of people in Central & South America & Africa annually, and the death rate has not changed since the big epidemics of the 1800s. If you come back from your travels after infection but before the disease presents (during the incubation period), when it does set in, you're probably going to die, because your doctor won't recognize what's wrong with you until it's too late. Alarmist, aren't I? This is a very good book that recounts in sufficient but not excessive detail how the transmission vector of yellow fever was identified in the late 1800s/early 1900s by the US Army Medical corps, among others. Good, dramatic story.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a project to do on yellow fever and wanted to get some historical perspective on its impact in the Americas and how the vaccine was developed. It's very scary to think about all the tests that were done by doctors without their patient's consent. The actual military scientific group that went down to Cuba and made most of the discoveries was one of the first to ask the permission of the participants in the studies and trials. During the studies, they actually put people in small shelters filled with clothing and blankets that patients who had died from yellow fever had soiled with vomit in order to prove the disease was not transferred through aerosols. Interesting story.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely detailed account of yellow fever and the men who discovered mosquito-born transmission, which allowed us to control the disease in many areas.

The first 30% of the book covers the history of yellow fever in the United States and Americas more generally. It's the best description of the 1793 outbreak in Philadelphia I've read. That, combined with the description of the 1878 outbreak in the MississippinRiver Valley, set the stage for thr eork if Walter Reed and the Yellow Fever Board in Cuba in 1900-01.

To write the book, Pierce consulted the extensive collection of material related to thr board's work assembled by Dr. Phillip Hench, currently housed at the University of Virginia. While only a few documents are included in the book, it's easy to see how to access to this material influenced the book as there are so many tiny details included that wouldn't otherwise be available. There are also a number of direct quotations from Reed's letters, which help flesh him out as a person rather than a one dimensional historical character.

Overall, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. It's well written and, having had an existing interest in pandemic history and yellow fever specifically, it filled a knowledge gap. I also apprecisted the detailed history of yellow fever in the US.

[Amanda Stables · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look into the times of Yellow Fever and the people that found the way it was transmitted and how to cure it.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Very detailed, seems to have been well-researched, and it is a very good story. I highly recommended it!

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A key to art and life is understanding the difference between causation and association in regards to any action.

Dip into this book for an understanding....

The guy it is about, Walter Reed, had in his day a massive H1N1 on his hands and dealt with it, beyond the convention of the day, and the politics of association of the day with just an idea of: hey let's solve what is what.

Great.

[Roger Winn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yellow Jack gives a good history of the struggle to understand the transmission of Yellow Fever and how to stop the spreading of the disease. It was a little heavy on the politics of the military doctors in their search for understanding of the disease. In addition, it didn't go into great detail about the science of how the disease is transmitted and what the disease does to the body.