Yellow fever in the Americas.
Dutch slave traders brought yellow fever to the Americas from Africa during the mid-seventeenth century. For the next two and a half centuries, the disease terrorized seaports throughout the Americas. Proof of the mosquito hypothesis was delayed because of two aspects of the disease: patients are viremic only during the first several days of clinical illness, and most mosquitoes require about 2 weeks of viral incubation before becoming infectious. Control of Aedes aegypti in urban centers failed to eliminate the disease because of its transmission by tree-hole-breeding mosquitoes that spend their winged lives mainly in forest canopies. Yellow fever continues to be a significant public health problem in parts of South America and Africa.
Bryan
Charles S
CS
Department of Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, 2 Medical Park, Suite 502, Columbia, SC 29203, USA. cbryan@richmed.medpark.sc.edu
Moss
Sandra W
SW
Kahn
Richard J
RJ
D000569:Americas; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D015004:Yellow Fever / Q000266:history* / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology