Scientist sacrifices himself to let mosquitoes bite him to death

American scientist Jesse William Lazear sacrificed himself to help prove that mosquitoes are carriers of deadly diseases.

Yellow fever originated in the African rainforests and was introduced to the Americas in the 16th century through European colonization and the transatlantic slave trade. Photo: @Labroots.

The disease then spread to tropical and temperate subtropical regions of South and Central America and the Caribbean. Photo: @Science Photo Library.

Strange outbreaks of the disease have been around for centuries, but it wasn't until the Spanish-American War in 1898 that yellow fever really caught the attention of the United States, after it claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers in Cuba. Photo: @Medbullets Step 1.

Nearly 20 years ago, a Cuban doctor named Carlos Finlay researched a bold hypothesis that yellow fever was transmitted through

mosquito

and the disease is not transmitted directly from person to person. But no one believes this theory. Photo: @Institut Pasteur.

When Carlos Finlay presented his ideas at the International Sanitary Congress in 1881, his colleagues dismissed them and actually laughed at him. Photo: @Health Digest.

Shocked by the death toll in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, the US military assembled a team of leading scientists including Walter Reed, James Carroll,

Jesse William Lazear

and Aristides Agramonte – to investigate the cause of the disease. Photo: @icipe.

Known as the Yellow Fever Commission, their initial work failed to prove that the disease was caused by the bacterium Bacillus icteroides, so they turned to the controversial hypothesis put forward by Finlay. Photo: @Hazelhill Family Practice.

A lot has changed since Finlay first proposed his theory in 1881. In the late 19th century, British and Italian researchers discovered that Anopheles mosquitoes were responsible for transmitting the malaria parasite, paving the way for the treatment and prevention of this deadly disease. Photo: @The Native Antigen Company.

Suddenly, the mosquito theory no longer seemed so absurd. William Lazear, along with Carroll and another young soldier, then let himself be bitten by Cuban mosquitoes as an experiment to gain biomedical knowledge. While Carroll and the soldier recovered and survived, Lazear died of yellow fever on September 25, 1900. Photo: @Wikipedia.

The Yellow Fever Commission’s subsequent discovery helped change the course of medical history. With the role of mosquitoes confirmed, targeted efforts to control the insect helped prevent yellow fever in many parts of the world . Photo: @Shorthandstories.

Sadly, this breakthrough cost the life of a brave scientist and countless unfortunate victims. Photo: @iNaturalist.

Dear readers, please watch the video : 5 MOST TERRIBLE PANDEMICS IN HUMAN HISTORY. Video source: @BATTLECRY - WORLD HISTORY.

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