19. Carlos Finlay and yellow fever
History books, particularly American textbooks, give the credit for identifying mosquitoes as culprits in seasonal yellow fever epidemics to Walter Reed, a US Army surgeon. Reed himself gave the credit to Carlos Finlay, who first presented the theory of mosquito-borne spread of the disease in 1881. For the remainder of the decade, Finlay presented a wealth of proofs supporting the theory. Reed arrived in Cuba in 1900, charged with examining several of the tropical diseases which afflicted American troops in the region. Reed used human volunteers for several experiments, which disproved many established beliefs regarding the disease and how it spread.
It also established Finlay’s hypothesis regarding the spread between humans via mosquitoes as correct. Reed cited Finlay’s work in his own papers, and in private and professional correspondence, though he became famed as the man who made the discoveries ending the yellow fever outbreaks through mosquito abatement. Reed returned to the United States in 1901 and lectured widely on yellow fever and the discoveries made by the American team he had led in Cuba. In November 1902, he suffered a ruptured appendix, developed peritonitis, and died at the age of 51. The United States Army honored him with several facilities in his name, including the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In America, Carlos Finlay is all but forgotten.