14. Thomas Nast and yellow fever
Thomas Nast achieved fame as a political cartoonist and caricaturist. Born in Germany, he moved to New York City as a child with his mother and sister while his father served an enlistment on first a French, and later an American warship. Throughout his lifetime outbreaks of yellow fever occurred seasonally in the United States, leading many of the larger cities to be avoided by Americans wealthy enough to do so. Doctors and scientists were unaware of the viral nature of the disease, nor that its primary means of transmission was through the bite of female mosquitoes. Nast spent his career lampooning politicians, exposing corruption, and acting as a propagandist for causes he supported. Contrary to popular belief, he did not create the image of the jackass for the Democratic Party, nor was he the first to draw the iconic Uncle Sam.
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt, a long-time acquaintance and admirer of the cartoonist, appointed him as Consul General to Guayaquil, Ecuador. Nast arrived at his post in July, just as an outbreak of yellow fever began. Several diplomatic missions and business entities arranged to leave the area during the outbreak, as was customary at the time. Nast chose to remain at his duties, assisting others fleeing the yellow fever outbreaks. Yellow fever caught up with Nast in the fall. Treatments consisted of attempts to ease the symptoms, which proved ineffective, and Nast died of yellow fever in the first week of December. In 1927, the virus which causes yellow fever became the first human virus to be isolated.