A Brief History of Yellow Fever Essay -- Diseases, Disorders

You woke up a week ago feeling odd. You were not sure what was wrong, but your body was full of aches, you felt hot to the touch, and you kept vomiting. Your mother told you to lay down and rest, hoping it was just a cold. After a few days, you began to feel better, well enough that you wanted to return to the river to watch the trade ships come in. Now, unfortunately, your symptoms have come back with a vengeance – your fever is back along with intense abdominal pain, your mouth is bleeding without being wounded, and every time you vomit, it appears black in color. Also, when you look in the mirror, your skin has changed from the sun-kissed color you have always been to a dull yellow hue. The doctor comes in to examine you; he makes many â€Å"tsk tsk† noises and hurries out of the room with a cloth over his face. The doctor mumbles to your mother that he believes you have Yellow Jack and there is nothing more he can do, you are going to die. Your mother weeps uncontro llably yet you cannot react because another horrendous pain in your head has doubled you over. Soon, as you stop shaking and begin to relax, the sounds of the doctor and your mother become white noise and your surroundings begin to dull until you prove the doctor right; another person fell victim to the infectious Yellow Fever virus. There is no definitive history or discovery date, but it is assumed that Yellow Fever originated in Africa and was brought to the Americas by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes â€Å"hitchhiking† on trade and slave ships. The first believed outbreak happened in 1648 in the Yucatà ¡n. It is â€Å"believed† because early documentation of disease and illness was not thoroughly investigated or described, they could have been caused by one thing or another. There is ... ...Organization summed it up best by stating â€Å"yellow fever is still considered to be a public health emergency of international concern,† (Yellow Fever WHO). Works Cited Castro, Ivà ¡n. 100 Hispanics You Should Know. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. Print. Cefrey, Holly. Yellow Fever. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2002. Print. Dickerson, James L. Yellow Fever: A Deadly Disease Poised to Kill Again. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2006. Print. Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: the True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. New York, NY: Clarion Books, 2003. Print. Shmaefsky, Brian R. Yellow Fever. New York, NY: Chelsea House, 2010. Print. â€Å"Yellow Fever.† www.cdc.gov. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. â€Å"Yellow Fever.† www.who.int/en. World Health Organization, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.