Search - The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History

interesting account of how yellow fever has plagued countries for centuries, how the disease is transmitted, how it was ultimately discovered, and why it is still feared. As an aside, an impressive biography of Walter Reed, the doctor who headed the commission on yellow fever.

Incredible read!

This is a great, very readable,book about the history of yellow fever in this country and how it shaped this country in so many ways. As you might expect,slavery played a major role in bringing yellow fever to America,but it was surprising that historians have placed the blame on yellow fever for bringing down the city of Memphis which had, in the 1870's, been one of the largest cities of the South at the time.

I enjoyed this book very much. We take for granted that we will not have to deal with anything so devastating as a yellow fever epidemic but the author points out that this could happen again. The book deals with Dr. Walter Reed and his colleagues who bravely studied the cause and transmission of the yellow fever virus. Relevant for today in light of H1N1 flu virus.