Ozarks Local, page 2:
Section: The Source
Being "bugged" 100 years ago
By S.G. Rainbolt
When Major Walter Reed arrived in Cuba in 1898, he and others in the commission had little knowledge to why U.S. soldiers there were developing a bizarre fever. Even though he served as an assistant surgeon for the Army since 1874, his knowledge of bacteriology or the knowledge he would learn about the fever would change his field.
It was yellow fever. The fever already claimed hundreds of people with all the same condition: Yellowish-colored skins, and high fevers. Hundreds of others waited with little hope of a quick cure, soon death, or life-long impaired health.
His experiments on healthy humans proved it was a certain mosquito that carried the disease to humans, leaving the general animal kingdom unharmed. At once, the military set up to exterminate the mosquitos and destroy their breeding ponds. Through their bold efforts, risking further infection, the yellow fever came under control.
Though Reed could not locate the germ mosquitos carried, it was his work that helped later scientists in identifying the virus. Possibly, without Reed, the insurmountable task in finding the particle (too small for ordinary microscopes) would have never been completed and sending scores of others to their grave.
His work and those that followed him is most assuredly the cornerstone used in combating the deadly West Nile virus today.
If confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the recent deaths would raise the nationwide toll to at least 15 this year and 33 since the virus was first discovered in the United States in 1999.
Dr. Lyle Petersen, a CDC expert on the virus, said there will probably be more West Nile activity in the South over the long run.
"But outbreaks could eventually happen anywhere," he said.
Of the 269 CDC-confirmed human cases this year, at least 178 of them have been in the coastal South.
The virus can cause flu-like symptoms and encephalitis, a potentially fatal brain infection. Most people bitten by an infected bug never get sick.
The virus is most dangerous for children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems. There is no cure for humans.
West Nile is common in Africa and the Middle East. Since 1999, when the virus reached New York, mosquitoes have spread the virus south and west.
West Nile now is found in mosquitoes as far west as Wyoming and Colorado, and New Mexico health officials Thursday announced that it has turned up in their state as well.
Assistant state veterinarian Thurman Reitz said testing showed that a horse in Tucumcari died of the disease. He said he expected a second test to confirm the finding.
The CDC has repeatedly said the virus eventually will reach the West Coast.
"We fully expect that over time the virus will make it to the West. But the timing of that is unknown," Petersen said. "Whether it's this year or next year or the year after that is just a matter of conjecture.”
If Reed was alive today could he crack this one and summon his "military?" Possibly. Speaking for others, we have are own "Reeds" today.
(Some segments of this story appeared in USA Today)
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