Yellow fever history

CDC Case Definition A mosquito-borne viral illness characterized by acute onset and constitutional symptoms followed by a brief remission and a recurrence of fever, hepatitis, albuminuria, and symptoms and, in some instances, renal failure, shock, and generalized hemorrhages. Laboratory criteria for diagnosis is (1) fourfold or greater rise in yellow fever antibody titer in a patient who has no history of recent yellow fever vaccination and cross-reactions to other flaviviruses have been excluded or (2) demonstration of yellow fever virus, antigen, or genome in tissue, blood, or other body fluid. 

There are some who have argued that without the use of Cinchona extracts, and later synthetic quinine analogues, world history over the past two centuries would have taken a very different course. It is argued that the use of quinine to treat malaria (and to a lesser extent yellow fever) facilitated colonialisation by western European countries of territories that would have been too hostile for foreigners with little natural resistance to parasitic-induced fevers. For example, the Panama Canal might not have been built without access to quinine. The outcome of the American Civil War has even been speculated upon because the successful blockade of the Confederate ports caused severe shortages of quinine so the Confederate Armies were debilitated by fevers. 

Infants under 9 months old are not generally immunized, except if they live in rural areas with a history of yellow fever epidemics (immunization at 6 months) or in an active epidemic focus (immunization at 4 months) (1). 

Hayes (5) has also reviewed the contribution of pesticides to the control of human diseases spread by arthropods and other vectors. Outbreaks of malaria, louse-borne typhus, plague, and urban yellow fever, four of the most important epidemic diseases of history, have been controlled by use of the organochlorine insecticides, especially DDT. In fact, the single most significant benefit from pesticides has been the protection from malaria. Today malaria eradication is an accomplished fact for 619 million people who live in areas once malarious. Where eradication has been achieved it has stood the test of time. An additional 334 million people live in areas where transmission of the parasite is no longer a major problem. Thus, about 1 billion people, or approximately one-fourth of the population of the world, no longer live under the threat of malaria. 

In the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., one can find a great many wonders of the natural world. None is quite as macabre as the corpse made of soap. The man in question died of yellow fever in the eighteenth century and was buried near Boston. Actually, he was buried alongside a woman, perhaps the love of his life, who has been dubbed "Soap Woman." She, too, died of yellow fever. However, the couple has been separated for quite some time, because Soap Woman has been on display at the Mutter Museum at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia since 1874. 

Viral hemorrhagic fevers may be diagnosed from the laboratory tests for infectious disease, as well as from the victim s travel history and the conditions to exposures. Vaccine so far is effective only against the yellow fever. Vaccines and antibody therapies for other fevers, however are not known at the moment but their development currently is under progress. 

Insects, especially mosquitoes, fleas, and lice, have been responsible for innumerable human deaths throughout history. The bubonic plague or "black death of medieval times that killed nearly one-third of Europe s population was borne by fleas. Malaria and yellow fever, diseases that were responsible for the loss of millions of lives in the twentieth century alone, are mosquito-borne diseases. 

Infection risk On 10 April 2009, during a routine record review in connection with a subsequent blood drive, a blood bank supervisor learned of a breach in the deferral protocol for blood products collected from trainees [52 ]. Further investigation showed that the blood that had been obtained during the previous drive had been from trainees who had been immunized with yellow fever vaccine 4 days before the drive. All of those blood products had already been processed and incorporated into the inventory at the hospital s blood bank. The blood bank supervisor reviewed the blood bank s records and identified 87 units of whole blood and three units of platelet that had been obtained from the recently immunized trainees. Blood products that had been released for transfusion were tracked forward to identify the patients who had received the implicated blood products. Unused blood products were identified and destroyed. Five patients had received six blood products (three units of platelets, two units of fresh frozen plasmas, and one unit of packed erythrocytes) from six of the trainees, who had no previous history of immunization or travel consistent with... 

A 72-year-old man with a history of congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia presents to the local emergency room with complaints of increasing shortness of breath, cough productive of yellow-green sputum, chest pain, fever, and malaise. He was hospitalized 12 days ago for urosepsis, for which he received 1 0 days of levofloxacin. 

Agneu ( neu ) Moania complains to his physician of a fever and cough. His cough produces thick yellow-brown sputum. A stain of his sputum shows many Gram-positive, bullet-shaped diplococci. A sputum culture confirms that he has pneumonia, a respiratory infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is sensitive to penicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline, and other antibiotics. Because of a history of penicillin allergy, he is started on oral erythromycin therapy. 

A 32-year-old male who works as a nurse in an AIDS clinic comes to an internist with complaints of weakness, fever, chills, and night sweats. During the past 2 months, he has lost weight and has developed a cough productive of whitish-yellow sputum. He mentions contact with a patient 3 months ago who had tuberculosis and is worried that he has become infected. His history includes BCG vac-... 

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