Mosquito Warrior : Yellow Fever, Public Health, and the Forgotten Career of General William C. Gorgas / Carol R. Byerly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Byerly, Carol R., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Physicians--United States--Biography.

Physicians.

Surgeons general (Military personnel)--United States--Biography.

Surgeons general (Military personnel).

Public health personnel--United States--Biography.

Public health personnel.

Yellow fever--North America--History--20th century.

Yellow fever.

Yellow fever--Transmission--North America--History--20th century.

Yellow fever--Prevention--History--20th century.

Mosquitoes as carriers of disease--North America--History--20th century.

Mosquitoes as carriers of disease.

Gorgas, William Crawford, 1854-1920.

Gorgas, William Crawford.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (431 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama : The University of Alabama Press, [2024]

Summary:

"General William Crawford Gorgas (1854-1920) was a renowned pioneer in tropical disease and public health control. A scion of Confederate elites, the contours of Gorgas's his life were directly shaped by yellow fever from birth, but it wasn't until Gorgas, Walter Reed, and other members of the US Army Medical Corps stationed in Cuba explored Carlos Finlay's revolutionary mosquito theory that Gorgas discovered his ultimate foe-the Aedes aegypti and Anopholes mosquitos responsible for transmitting some of the world's deadliest infectious diseases. After successfully clearing Havana of mosquitos and eradicating the spread of yellow fever on the ground (while Reed's team proved it in the lab), Gorgas became chief sanitary officer for the US in the Panama Canal Zone. There he spent the next eight years fighting mosquitos and developing the medical and public health infrastructure necessary to combat mosquito-borne diseases on the isthmus. His efforts created the conditions necessary for the successful construction of the Panama Canal where others had failed, improving global health and empowering US interests abroad through hard and soft power, alike. Gorgas's subsequent missions to Latin America and Africa for the Rockefeller Foundation sought to reduce human suffering and improve global health but were also ideologically charged, as evidenced in his speech "The Conquest of the Tropics for the White Race." In 1914, Gorgas became Surgeon General of the US Army and presided over the expansion of the Army's medical service and modernization of the public health system in the years leading up to and during World War I. Celebrated during his lifetime, Gorgas has largely faded from historical memory but his story remains relevant to the threat of infectious disease we face today and the challenges to public health in a politically complex, globalized world. Carol R. Byerly's definitive biography explains his effacement and restores Gorgas to the historical narrative, expertly situating his life and work in context with his times and tracing his legacy into the present-a cautionary tale of what happens when public health becomes politicized and a reminder that science alone cannot conquer disease"-- Provided by publisher.

"The long overdue and definitive biography of the life and work of General William Crawford Gorgas"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I: To Maturity, 1854-1898

1. A Young Witness to War and Defeat

2. The Making of an Army Medical Officer

3. Love in the Time of Yellow Fever

Part II: New Purpose, 1898-1904

4. Trial by War and Disease, 1898

5. The Terror of Yellow Jack in Havana

6. War against Mosquitoes Begins

7. Will Panama Be Safe Enough to Build a Canal?

Part III: National to International Renown, 1904-1914

8. Dark Days at Home and in Panama

9. Halcyon Days for Panama Public Health

10. Fighting Mosquitoes and George Goethals

11. Making the Tropics "Safe for the White Man"

12. Fighting Mosquitoes Abroad

Part IV: To Fight War and Disease, 1914-1918

13. Public Health and the Bully Pulpit of the Army Surgeon General

14. Duty to Country vs. Mission for Humanity

15. Mobilizing the Nation for War

16. Doctors vs. Officers: Challenging the Army Hierarchy in the Name of Medicine

Part V: The Final Campaigns, 1918-1920

17. General Gorgas Is "Retired for Age"

18. Fighting Disease to the Last

Epilogue: Remembering William C. Gorgas, 1920-2020

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8173-9496-6