Jesse William Lasear’s death has contributed to demonstrating the role of mosquitoes in sowing gold sauce in the Americas more than a century ago.
Portrait of scientist Jesse William Lazear. Image: National Library of Medicine
In the early 20th century, American scientist Jesse William Lasear sacrificed himself to pursue biomedical knowledge. He let mosquitoes carry the pathogens and died of yellow fever within a few weeks. Through his death, Lasear identified this small insect as a dangerous disease, according to IFL Science.
The yellow fever originated from rain forests in Africa and imported into the US in the 16th century during the European colonial process and trading in the Atlantic Riger. In the new world, the disease spreads strongly in the tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Central America and the Caribbean region. The epidemic outbreaks appeared for centuries, but it was not until the Spanish -American war in 1898 that yellow fever really attracted the attention of the US after taking the lives of thousands of soldiers in Cuba.
Nearly 20 years earlier, a Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay made a bold hypothesis that the yellow fever spread through mosquitoes and the disease was not directly transmitted from humans to humans. However, when he presented the idea of creating an international sanitary seminar in 1881, his colleagues rejected the hypotheses and laughed at him.
Horror before the number of deaths in Cuba during the Spanish -US War, the US military established a leading scientific team including Walter Reed, James Carroll, Jesse W. Lazear, and Aristides Agramonte to find out the cause of the disease. Known as the gold fever committee, their initial research cannot prove the disease caused by Bacillus Icteroides, so they switch to reviewing the controversial hypothesis of Finlay.
Many changes have taken place after Finlay suggested hypotheses in 1881. In the last few years of the 19th century, British and Italy researchers discovered Anopheles mosquito mosquitoes were responsible for transmitting malaria parasites, thereby paving the way for treatment and preventing epidemics. Therefore, the theory of mosquitoes transmitting disease is no longer difficult to accept.
Laser along with Carroll and a young soldier for mosquitoes to burn the victim of yellow fever in Cuba. While Carroll and the soldier can recover and survive, Lazear died of yellow fever on September 25, 1900. Obviously, mosquitoes are the main culprit even though researchers have not yet identified the relationship clearly. They need a series of other experiments to certify doubts.
Volunteers are required to sleep on bed sheets with vomiting, blood, urine and stools of yellow fever patients but no one is ill. They also slept in a mosquito chamber that burned the patient with yellow fever. In another chamber, the control group is separated. Nearly everyone in the mosquito -containing room is sick, while people in the protected room are still healthy.
The discovery of the yellow fever committee contributes to changing medical history. After the role of mosquitoes is confirmed, efforts to control this insect help prevent gold fever in many parts of the world, thereby saving many lives. But the price to pay is the life of brave scientist and many anonymous volunteers.