Yellow Fever: A Deadly Disease Poised to Kill Again.YELLOW FEVER yellow fever, acute infectious disease endemic in tropical Africa and many areas of South America. Epidemics have extended into subtropical and temperate regions during warm seasons. : A Deadly Disease Poised to Kill Again JAMES L DICKERSON Today, people in the developed world view yellow fever as a relic of the past. However, Dickerson explains, yellow fever is a prime candidate for reemergence both as a potential terrorist weapon and as a public health threat borne of global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. . Dickerson begins the book with historical accounts of the United States' most deadly yellow fever outbreaks. Philadelphia in 1793 lost 4,000 residents to the disease. Interestingly, many African Americans seemed to be immune to the disease. Epidemics ravaged rav·age v. rav·aged, rav·ag·ing, rav·ages v.tr. 1. To bring heavy destruction on; devastate: A tornado ravaged the town. 2. New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded and other parts of the South during the 1870s. Then, physicians began to understand that mosquitoes spread the disease. Dickerson outlines the various ways in which the warm-weather disease could spread in the United States either as a biological weapon or a natural outcome of climate change. Prometheus, 2006, 271 p., b&w photos, hardcover, $25.00. |
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