The American Plague - Molly Caldwell Crosby [133]
The statements by George M. Sternberg appeared in the July 1901 Popular Science Monthly. Reed’s anger at these remarks was expressed in a letter to Gorgas dated July 27, 1901, and held at the National Library of Medicine. Sternberg’s letter requesting a promotion to major general was dated January 25, 1901, and is held in the Sternberg papers at the National Library of Medicine.
The description of Reed’s final days and illness came from Emilie Lawrence Reed in notes held in the Hench collection, as well as “Notes on Reed and Carroll,” written by Philip S. Hench on January 10, 1942. Additional details were found in the Walter Reed Papers at the National Library of Medicine. The account of Reed’s death was taken from three sources: Kean’s letter to Howard Kelly on March 25, 1901, William Borden’s letter to Howard Kelly on March 16, 1905, and the Report: History of Doctor Walter Reed’s Illness from Appendicitis by William Borden, 1903. All three are held in the National Library of Medicine.
Details of Reed’s funeral were taken from Kean’s letter to Howard Kelly on March 25, 1901, Truby’s recollection, Hench’s interview with Lawrence and Blossom Reed on November 21, 1946, and a Biographical Sketch: Life and Letters of Dr. Walter Reed by His Daughter. Welch’s remarks were found in the Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Certain Papers in regard to Experiments Conducted for the Purpose of Coping with Yellow Fever, by Theodore Roosevelt, December 5, 1906. Roosevelt’s quote about Reed’s contribution to the betterment of mankind came from Senate Document No. 10, Fifty-ninth Congress. All of the above are held in the Hench collection.
The list of names who contributed to the Walter Reed Memorial Association were found in Writer and Pierce’s Yellow Jack and Bean’s Walter Reed.
The Mosquito
Biographical information about Major William C. Gorgas came from Greer Williams’s book The Plague Hunters, as well as William Crawford Gorgas: His Life and Work.
In an interview with an anonymous source in Havana, I confirmed that the same method used in 1900 for monitoring mosquitoes is still in use today.
Part IV: United States, Present Day Epidemic
The introductory quote for Part IV was found in T. P. Monath’s “Yellow Fever: An Update,” published in Lancet Infectious Disease, 2001.
The account of Tom McCullough’s death from yellow fever came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Fatal Yellow Fever in a Traveler Returning from Amazonas, Brazil, 2002,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. I also consulted another article, “Fatal Yellow Fever in a Traveler Returning from Venezuela, 1999,” in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for information about similar cases. Some of the more personal details about McCullough’s hospital stay and death were taken from two articles in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, March 27, 2002, and May 14, 2004.
To describe what would happen in the case of an epidemic in the United States, I followed the CDC’s “Response to an Epidemic of Yellow Fever,” published in November 2005 specifically for Africa and the Americas. In the report, the CDC outlines the response of field investigators, armed forces, border officials, medical personnel, educational campaigns and vaccine usage.
For additional information about yellow fever vaccine production and stockpiling, I consulted the WHO’s “State of the World’s Vaccines and Immunizations” and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. Prior to 2002, there was a global shortage of the yellow fever vaccine due to the lack of funds and too few labs producing the vaccine. Since then, the GAVI, with help from the Vaccine Fund, has been able to keep stockpiles of six million vaccines in the case of an epidemic, as well as an additional