What is Yellow Fever, Causes and Treatment

Definition of Yellow Fever

Yellow fever is an acute systemic disease caused by a virus called a flavivirus. In cases of severe viral infection that causes high fever, bleeding into the skin, and necrosis (death) of the cells in the kidney and liver. Damage done to the heart of the virus results in severe jaundice which yellows the skin. So, the "yellow" in "yellow fever".

Yellow fever once ravaged port cities in America. (One observer wrote: "The disease is prevalent in the south, not only in port cities. Grandfather and my grandmother lived through an epidemic of yellow jack in central Mississippi around 1900, and they were a long way from the sea shore").

Symptoms of Yellow Fever

Now the yellow fever is most common in tropical areas of Africa and the Americas. Virus of yellow fever is transmitted in most cases by a mosquito bite. In the city settings, yellow fever may be transmitted from person to person by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. In the forest, yellow fever is transmitted from monkeys to humans by mosquitoes that breed in tree holes in the rain forests. Diagnosis of yellow fever was made by observation or, if necessary, with the virus from a blood sample.

Treatment for Yellow Fever

There is no cure for yellow fever, although antiviral drugs may be tried. Pain reliever’s non-aspirin, rest, and rehydration with fluids decrease discomfort. Illness usually passes within a few weeks.

Yellow fever can be prevented by vaccination. Yellow fever vaccine is a live attenuated virus vaccine. It is recommended for people traveling to or living in tropical areas in the Americas and Africa where yellow fever occurs. Because it is a live vaccine, it should not be given to infants or people with weakened immune systems.

The vaccine is based on the classic medical research performed by Dr. Walter Reed. When the yellow fever epidemic among American troops in Cuba in 1900, Dr. Reed, a member of the Army Medical Corps, headed a commission of doctors on yellow fever. They found that fever is transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that breed near houses (and also transmit dengue). Reed's team later showed that the mosquito injects the virus that causes fear. Sanitary engineers (hygiene) eradicate mosquitoes and liberate Cuba from yellow fever in 1902 (the year of the death of Reed appendicitis).

Vaccine against yellow fever is also based on the work of Dr. Max Theiler. Dr. Theiler, from South Africa, working at the Rockefeller Foundation (now the Rockefeller University) in New York. In 1929 Theiler got yellow fever (not an experience that is not common among those who study the disease) but recover and become immune (resistant) to him. The next year Theiler found that yellow fever could be transmitted to white mice, which are easy to handle and are available in thousands at a small fee. This is a critical finding for vaccine production. In 1951, Max Theiler (1899-1972) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to fight it".

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