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nYellownfever was one of the most dangerous diseases during the 19thncentury, with several terrible outbreaks in the Americas, Africa, andnEurope. People needed to figure out how the disease was spread sonthey could fight it!
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nEnternour birthday boy, a Cuban scientist and doctor. He studied yellownfever and made a hypothesis (which means an educated guess) that thendisease was being spread through mosquitos. If an infected person wasnbitten by a mosquito, and later a healthy person was bitten by thensame mosquito, the second person usually developed the disease.
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nFinlayn(born on this day in 1833) published this hypothesis in 1886,nbut his idea was ignored for two decades. Finally U.S. militaryndoctor Walter Reed paid attention to Finlay’s idea and began to testnit. Soon Reed’s team confirmed that the mosquito was spreading thendisease, and people began to control the disease by controllingnthe mosquitos. n
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nWencall “pests” (like rats or mosquitos) that carry diseases “vectors.”
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nReednoften gets the credit for “beating” yellow fever, but hengives credit to Finlay. Unfortunately, the disease isn’t reallynbeaten, yet; is only controlled in parts of the in the world. Africanstill has a problem with the disease, and it can still crop up innLatin America, too. As a matter of fact, there are an estimatedn200,000 cases each year, with 30,000 people dying of yellow fever pernyear!
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nLearnnmore, take action!
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nPestWorld for Kids has info, science fair kits, and games.
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nMalarianis also spread by mosquitos, as are other dangerous illnesses. ThenUnited Nations Foundation has a campaign called Nothing But Nets.nDonate to help prevent mosquito-borne illnesses and death!
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