The American Plague - Molly Caldwell Crosby [104]
Noguchi was famous for working beneath the Rockefeller Institute’s director Simon Flexner. Most viewed Noguchi as either insane or a genius. He was well liked, but also egocentric, rabidly ambitious and a loner in medical research, preferring to conduct his experiments alone, and thus taking sole credit for them as well. His findings on yellow fever had been bold, but unsubstantiated and blasted by the likes of Aristides Agramonte—the only survivor from Walter Reed’s original team and now an old man. When Noguchi heard of the latest discovery in West Africa—one that discounted his bacteria—he decided to set up his own study there.
As Noguchi readied himself to travel to Africa that September, he was met with word that Adrian Stokes was ill with yellow fever. The doctors guessed that Stokes’s open wound on his hand had been infected with yellow fever blood. It was the first case of yellow fever transmission through skin. Stokes had retreated to his bungalow one night during dinner, where he began vomiting. Shortly thereafter, he moved into a hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. Ever the scientist, Stokes decided to personally take part in the experiments he had been performing on his monkeys. He insisted that his partners allow mosquitoes to bite him—200 in all. The doctors also drew blood from Stokes.
Two days later, on September 17, Stokes felt better. He read books and spoke of going to his lab to work, but he also made his colleagues promise that if he should die, they would autopsy him for the study. Stokes’s temperature stayed around 101 degrees, while his pulse hovered at 70. His mind began to slip, at first just growing dull and later delirious. His skin grew yellow. Stokes died of yellow fever on September 19.
His colleagues, Bauer and Hudson, deliberated what to do next. They had promised to autopsy Stokes, but carving into their own friend an hour after his death seemed impossible. Bauer, with tears in his eyes, said he would do it. But Hudson, who performed all autopsies for the team, stopped him. “I will do it.”
The diagnosis was a clear case of yellow fever, and the doctors had shown that the virus could cause an infection through the skin—their friend and colleague, Adrian Stokes, had been proof of that.
Two months after Stokes’s death, on November 17, 1927, Hideyo Noguchi arrived in Accra to begin his work. Since there had been no new outbreaks of yellow fever, he would have to use blood samples from the Asibi strain and Stokes. Again working alone— and demanding a larger bungalow for his personal quarters— Noguchi went to work proving his bacteria theory, or at least proving that there might be different types of yellow fever. He used roughly 1,200 monkeys during his six-month stay, spending close to $20,000 on his subjects. In cables to New York, which could run $1,800 per month, Noguchi declared, “My work is so revolutionary that it is going to upset all our old ideas of yellow fever.”
By May, Noguchi had plans to return to the United States with his proof in tow. The other doctors found his data confusing and inconclusive, but he was not deterred by the opinions of less brilliant men. First, however, he wanted to visit the lab in Lagos to compare studies. As he boarded the boat, Noguchi complained of a chill. He looked tired and asked Hudson to draw some blood to test for malaria. No malarial parasites could be found. Noguchi made the overnight boat trip back to Accra, growing more ill. Another doctor housed Noguchi and cared for him during an illness that was looking more and more like yellow fever. As his temperature rose, and his pulse slowed, he began