Yellow Fever and Fame

Infectious Diseases continually shape human history, often through their impact on leaders in Science, Politics, War, Religion, Industry and Art.  The death of a King, President or Pope from salmonellosis, plague or anthrax can affect us all, and serves as a useful paradigm in the appreciation of these conditions.  For many, yellow fever (YF) remains a “rare tropical disease” which (as in the current Angolan outbreak) periodically appears in the developing world.  Few realize that major YF outbreaks were recorded in the United States, Spain, Italy and even England as recently as the early twentieth century. The list of notables who died of YF includes Benjamin Latrobe, the architect who designed the United States Capitol Building, and Henry Lehman, the financier who founded Lehmann Brothers.  Both contracted the disease in New Orleans, respectively in 1820 and 1855.  Heads of State who died of YF included Haitian President Alexandre Petion (died 1818) and Thomas Dundas, Governor of Guadeloupe (died 1794).  Non-fatal attacks appear in the biographies of American President Zachary Taylor, Texas President Anson Jones and Chilean Supreme Director, Bernardo O’Higgins.  Victims of YF also included Cyrus McCormick, Thomas Nast, Donald Meek and Alexander Selkirk.  McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper, acquired the infection in Virginia at the age of 5.  Nast, a legendary political cartoonist, was stricken in Ecuador in 1902; and Meek an iconic char...
Source: GIDEON blog - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Epidemiology VIPatients Yellow fever Source Type: blogs