Research Catalog

Title

Yellow fever : a deadly disease poised to kill again / James L. Dickerson.

Author

Dickerson, James.

Publication

Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

271 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

Yellow Fever is unlikely to be found on a list of potential health threats facing Americans today. Most people, if they have heard of the disease at all, would consider it a historical curiosity from a bygone era. In this fascinating study of a once-terrifying pandemic, author James L. Dickerson makes it clear that the disease could reemerge with deadly virulence. In a vividly told narrative, filled with poignant and graphic scenes culled from historical archives, Dickerson recounts the history of one of the most feared diseases in the United States. From the late 18th to the early 20th century, Yellow Fever killed Americans by the tens of thousands in the Northeast and throughout the South. In Memphis alone, five thousand people died in 1878. Dickerson describes how public health officials gradually eliminated the disease from this country, so that by the mid 1950s it had ceased to be of much concern to the public at large. However, to this day no cure has been found. As a mosquito-borne viral infection, Yellow Fever is impervious to antibiotics, and it continues to wreak havoc in parts of South America and Africa. Focusing on the present, Dickerson discusses the potential threat of Yellow Fever as a biological warfare agent in the hands of terrorists. Also of concern to public health researchers is the effect of global warming on mosquito populations. Even a one-to-two degree warming enables disease-bearing mosquitoes to move into areas once protected by colder weather. He concludes with a discussion of current precautionary efforts based on interviews with experts and analysis of available studies.

Alternative Title

Deadly disease poised to kill again

Subject

• Geschichte 1793-2005
• Yellow fever > History
• Emerging infectious diseases
• Yellow Fever > history
• Yellow Fever > epidemiology
• Communicable Diseases, Emerging
• Emerging infectious diseases
• Yellow fever
• Gelbfieber
• Gele koorts
• Gelbfieber > USA > Geschichte
• USA
• Amerika

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-266) and index.

Contents

Philadelphia: the great plague of 1793 -- -- New Orleans: gateway to death -- Memphis almost disappears -- -- Mississippi devastated by yellow jack -- -- Spanish-American war: finding the real enemy -- -- Weapons of mass destruction -- -- Global warming casts ominous shadow -- -- The disease that won't go away.

ISBN

• 1591023998
• 9781591023999

LCCN

• 2005038055
• 9781591023999

OCLC

• ocm62790014
• 62790014
• SCSB-14652209

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library