History of Medicine: Part 11: Mosquitoes
Panama Canal
https://youtu.be/D_PtYPnKBJs
Panama Canal
P424-425 - scale of construction
Yellow fever epidemics caused terror, economic disruption, and deaths. From the time of columbus, settlers had gotten sick with fever and malaria.
Page 367
Carlos Finlay
Born in Cuba to a Scottish father and a French mother. He became a doctor. He believed in the Miasma theory of disease.
Again, made sense, many things that smell bad have harmful germs within them. In the late 1880's the scientific world was split. Hard to believe something so small can have such a big effect.
Finlay visited a lot of patients struggling with yellow fever. He noticed that very often mosquitoes were present in the room.
He set about experiments, curious whether the mosquitoes were causing the illness. When subjects were bitten, some got ill and some didn't. It confused him.
Whenever he told people his idea, he was mocked and ignored. Someone even nicknamed him "Mosquito man."
However, he pressed on. He noticed that there was a period of 2-3 weeks between patients catching the fever.
The United States occupied Cuba at the time, due to the Spanish-American war. The military set about cleaning up Havana, bleaching the streets and clearing trash. It was all done to combat bad air. However, it didn't make a difference and people still got Yellow fever.
In addition, when one soldier was punished with a month's solitary confinement, he became ill after no contact with anyone and died. This was a clue toward the mosquito hypothesis.
Germs and bacteria were known about at this time but not viruses. By looking at mosquitoes blood, the scientists didn't know that viruses exsisted.
Even with the evidence mounting, many still resisted the idea. One paper read, "of all the silly and nonsensical rigemorole about Yellow fever that has yet made it into print, the silliest beyond compare is that of the mosquito hypothesis."
Finlay set up an experiment where several people would sleep in a mosquito proof room, with the dirty blankets and pillows of a Yellow fever victim. They were confined to the room for a week and didn't get sick.
Finlay's hypothesis was slowly picking up support.
Through Finlay's experiments he had discovered it was likely that the virus carrying mosquitoes were only the females of a specific breed. Not all mosquitoes carried the virus. In addition, once a mosquito was infected, it took a week for it to become infectious. This is why Finlay had trouble with his experiments.
By this time, his hypothesis had enough interest that the army decided to try it.
The mosquitoes liked laying eggs in clean still water. So the army set about emptying water sources. Putting oil in those that couldn't be. (The oil gave the water a coating which suffocated the larvae.) They intalled running water into houses. They installed all houses with mosquito netting.
The results were magnificent.
June - 100 cases
July - 51 cases
August- 27 cases
September- 7 cases
Last case was in November
There had been 1400 known cases of Yello fever in 1900. In 1901, there was 37 known cases all year.
Finlay's hypothesis had been proven effective. It now became the mosquito virus theory.
Nevertheless, Finlay still remained a controversial figure. When he was sent to Panama, a team of doctors in the US tried to have him removed. Roosevelt considered their requests until one doctor defended Finlay saying, "filth and smells, Mr president, have nothing to do with either malaria or Yellow fever. You are facing the greatest decision of your career. If you fall back on the old methods of sanitation, you will fail. If you campaign against the mosquitoes, you shall have your canal."
https://youtu.be/uxR2KIgFAPg
Carlos Finlay
https://youtu.be/PIrsm8zLEAU
Malaria
Yellow fever epidemics caused terror, economic disruption, and deaths. From the time of columbus, settlers had gotten sick with fever and malaria.
Page 367
Carlos Finlay
Born in Cuba to a Scottish father and a French mother. He became a doctor. He believed in the Miasma theory of disease.
Again, made sense, many things that smell bad have harmful germs within them. In the late 1880's the scientific world was split. Hard to believe something so small can have such a big effect.
Finlay visited a lot of patients struggling with yellow fever. He noticed that very often mosquitoes were present in the room.
He set about experiments, curious whether the mosquitoes were causing the illness. When subjects were bitten, some got ill and some didn't. It confused him.
Whenever he told people his idea, he was mocked and ignored. Someone even nicknamed him "Mosquito man."
However, he pressed on. He noticed that there was a period of 2-3 weeks between patients catching the fever.
The United States occupied Cuba at the time, due to the Spanish-American war. The military set about cleaning up Havana, bleaching the streets and clearing trash. It was all done to combat bad air. However, it didn't make a difference and people still got Yellow fever.
In addition, when one soldier was punished with a month's solitary confinement, he became ill after no contact with anyone and died. This was a clue toward the mosquito hypothesis.
Germs and bacteria were known about at this time but not viruses. By looking at mosquitoes blood, the scientists didn't know that viruses exsisted.
Even with the evidence mounting, many still resisted the idea. One paper read, "of all the silly and nonsensical rigemorole about Yellow fever that has yet made it into print, the silliest beyond compare is that of the mosquito hypothesis."
Finlay set up an experiment where several people would sleep in a mosquito proof room, with the dirty blankets and pillows of a Yellow fever victim. They were confined to the room for a week and didn't get sick.
Finlay's hypothesis was slowly picking up support.
Through Finlay's experiments he had discovered it was likely that the virus carrying mosquitoes were only the females of a specific breed. Not all mosquitoes carried the virus. In addition, once a mosquito was infected, it took a week for it to become infectious. This is why Finlay had trouble with his experiments.
By this time, his hypothesis had enough interest that the army decided to try it.
The mosquitoes liked laying eggs in clean still water. So the army set about emptying water sources. Putting oil in those that couldn't be. (The oil gave the water a coating which suffocated the larvae.) They intalled running water into houses. They installed all houses with mosquito netting.
The results were magnificent.
June - 100 cases
July - 51 cases
August- 27 cases
September- 7 cases
Last case was in November
There had been 1400 known cases of Yello fever in 1900. In 1901, there was 37 known cases all year.
Finlay's hypothesis had been proven effective. It now became the mosquito virus theory.
Nevertheless, Finlay still remained a controversial figure. When he was sent to Panama, a team of doctors in the US tried to have him removed. Roosevelt considered their requests until one doctor defended Finlay saying, "filth and smells, Mr president, have nothing to do with either malaria or Yellow fever. You are facing the greatest decision of your career. If you fall back on the old methods of sanitation, you will fail. If you campaign against the mosquitoes, you shall have your canal."
https://youtu.be/uxR2KIgFAPg
Carlos Finlay
https://youtu.be/PIrsm8zLEAU
Malaria
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