Read The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our Nation for Free Online
Authors: Molly Caldwell Crosby
to travel, prospering among the habitations of man, whether dwelling or boat. Some have been known to live for days in the damp clothes enclosed in a trunk. Aedes aegypti were native to Africa but established residence in the western hemisphere after centuries of ship trade provided the insect stowaway with repeated opportunity to colonize in the New World. The mosquito flourished.
When African ships dropped anchor in the Havana harbor, the new generation of female mosquitoes hunted warm-blooded mammals. The bright colors, movements, accents and sounds of the bustling harbor were lost on these insect immigrants; they were attracted to the ephemeral scent of exhaled carbon dioxide and lactic acid mingling in the humid air. Some moved unnoticed onto the shores of Cuba, where blood meals were in large supply. Others settled onto the decks of neighboring steamboats like the Souder where shipments of tobacco and sugar would soon depart for New Orleans. As the female mosquito departed her ship, she was attracted to the flailing arms and swatting that usually precipitate a swarm of mosquitoes. Her vision sensors locked onto the frenzied movement and its resulting heat. She landed on the flesh of an arm, easing in her proboscis, and injected a chemical that would prevent the human blood from clotting too quickly. As she did so, a sphere-shaped virus slipped into the bloodstream like oil entering water, and yellow fever replicated in the lifeline of an unsuspecting donor. The loaded mosquito simply moved onto the next warm body, where once again, she would exchange fever for blood. The infected person harbored the virus, unknowingly for a few days, while local Aedes aegypti mosquitoes then fed on the carrier human. This blood meal would pass the yellow fever virus into the gut and bloodstream of new mosquitoes, and the cycle, about one to two weeks long, would be complete. Within weeks, this rotation of the virus from mosquito to human to mosquito would create an insect population of virulent mosquitoes that would feed on the human population through all of the summer and fall. And so another yellow fever epidemic made its start in Cuba.
Though it was almost a yearly occurrence on the busy Caribbean island, this year’s epidemic would prove to be unusually virulent, as though after two centuries it had finally perfected its genius for killing.
Yellow fever had been endemic in Cuba since the mid-1600s when the slave trade had established a sturdy colony of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and a steady influx of the virus on cargo and slave ships. Small, sporadic cases would surface yearly. Exposure to these mild infections, especially during childhood, produced a type of immunity among the locals. Throughout the Caribbean and American South, it was almost a rite of passage to become “acclimated” to the fevers, and yellow fever quickly earned its reputation as a “stranger’s disease” for its ability to hone in on new blood. In 1878, however, it was as though a new virus entered the circulation; the death toll mounted and those previously thought immune succumbed.
On May 19, 1878, the Souder set her course for Key West, where she would dock two days for supplies. This also provided the crew with some time for entertainment, mostly in the form of rum. Four days later, hungover and tired, the crew arrived at the Mississippi quarantine station outside of New Orleans and awaited inspection.
For three months the quarantine officers had been fielding cases of yellow fever coming from the Caribbean, in addition to four infected steamships from Rio de Janeiro. Two years before, in 1876, pressure from the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, as well as a number of prominent physicians, had persuaded the Louisiana Legislature to weaken its laws on quarantine. Once required to spend ten days in detention to assure no cases of fever, vessels were now at the personal discretion of the board. To make matters worse, New Orleans officials were
When African ships dropped anchor in the Havana harbor, the new generation of female mosquitoes hunted warm-blooded mammals. The bright colors, movements, accents and sounds of the bustling harbor were lost on these insect immigrants; they were attracted to the ephemeral scent of exhaled carbon dioxide and lactic acid mingling in the humid air. Some moved unnoticed onto the shores of Cuba, where blood meals were in large supply. Others settled onto the decks of neighboring steamboats like the Souder where shipments of tobacco and sugar would soon depart for New Orleans. As the female mosquito departed her ship, she was attracted to the flailing arms and swatting that usually precipitate a swarm of mosquitoes. Her vision sensors locked onto the frenzied movement and its resulting heat. She landed on the flesh of an arm, easing in her proboscis, and injected a chemical that would prevent the human blood from clotting too quickly. As she did so, a sphere-shaped virus slipped into the bloodstream like oil entering water, and yellow fever replicated in the lifeline of an unsuspecting donor. The loaded mosquito simply moved onto the next warm body, where once again, she would exchange fever for blood. The infected person harbored the virus, unknowingly for a few days, while local Aedes aegypti mosquitoes then fed on the carrier human. This blood meal would pass the yellow fever virus into the gut and bloodstream of new mosquitoes, and the cycle, about one to two weeks long, would be complete. Within weeks, this rotation of the virus from mosquito to human to mosquito would create an insect population of virulent mosquitoes that would feed on the human population through all of the summer and fall. And so another yellow fever epidemic made its start in Cuba.
Though it was almost a yearly occurrence on the busy Caribbean island, this year’s epidemic would prove to be unusually virulent, as though after two centuries it had finally perfected its genius for killing.
Yellow fever had been endemic in Cuba since the mid-1600s when the slave trade had established a sturdy colony of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and a steady influx of the virus on cargo and slave ships. Small, sporadic cases would surface yearly. Exposure to these mild infections, especially during childhood, produced a type of immunity among the locals. Throughout the Caribbean and American South, it was almost a rite of passage to become “acclimated” to the fevers, and yellow fever quickly earned its reputation as a “stranger’s disease” for its ability to hone in on new blood. In 1878, however, it was as though a new virus entered the circulation; the death toll mounted and those previously thought immune succumbed.
On May 19, 1878, the Souder set her course for Key West, where she would dock two days for supplies. This also provided the crew with some time for entertainment, mostly in the form of rum. Four days later, hungover and tired, the crew arrived at the Mississippi quarantine station outside of New Orleans and awaited inspection.
For three months the quarantine officers had been fielding cases of yellow fever coming from the Caribbean, in addition to four infected steamships from Rio de Janeiro. Two years before, in 1876, pressure from the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, as well as a number of prominent physicians, had persuaded the Louisiana Legislature to weaken its laws on quarantine. Once required to spend ten days in detention to assure no cases of fever, vessels were now at the personal discretion of the board. To make matters worse, New Orleans officials were