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    The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing
    The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing
    The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing
    Audiobook1 hour

    The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing

    Written by Suzanne Jurmain

    Narrated by Brian Hutchison

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In the summer of 1899, U.S. forces in Cuba discover the island is rampant with Yellow Fever. So the U.S. government sends a group of four elite Army doctors headed by Dr. Walter Reed to determine what is causing the outbreak. Working against the clock as more lives are claimed, the doctors investigate the theory that mosquitoes might be spreading the disease. During their experiments, two of the doctors contract Yellow Fever, and one actually dies. As the pressure intensifies, Reed obtains additional funding to conduct targeted experiments-and proves a theory with little previous support in the scientific community. In The Secret of the Yellow Death, author Suzanne Jurmain presents a technical subject as a compelling real-life detective story sure to capture young readers' imaginations. Narrator Brian Hutchison's performance masterfully imparts the doctors' hope and determination as they desperately search for a life-saving answer. "Young people interested in medicine or scientific discovery will find this book engrossing, as will history students." -School Library Journal
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJul 1, 2011
    ISBN9781461809173

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    Reviews for The Secret of the Yellow Death

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    • 4/5
      Very nicely done summary of the work done by Walter Reed and colleagues both Cuban and American to untangle the method of infection for yellow fever aimed at a middle-school audience, but accessible both to advanced grade-school readers and adults.

    • 4/5
      A look into how a team of scientists discovered the cause of Yellow Fever. The book is arranged chronologically and contains a number of great and interesting pictures to go along with the information. Contains a great bibliography as well.
    • 4/5
      Very nicely done summary of the work done by Walter Reed and colleagues both Cuban and American to untangle the method of infection for yellow fever aimed at a middle-school audience, but accessible both to advanced grade-school readers and adults.

    • 5/5
      I really liked this book. The books talks about the scientist who found the transfer of yellow fever from the mosquito to human. It tells you almost step by step how it was tested and how they had to get human subjects willing to get infected to see what was happening. The book has really nice pictures that enhance what is being talked about in the text. Yellow fever isn’t something we have to deal with now but it is still out there. This book will be a great tool in the classroom because it can be used to address many different scientific issues such as human testing.
    • 4/5
      Yellow fever was a horrifying disease that killed thousands. Between 1800 and 1900, it killed 100,000 Americans, and the U.S. Surgeon General labeled it "...an enemy which imperils life and cripples commerce and industry." in 1900, Major Walter Reed was ordered to go to Cuba with three other Army doctors to find the cause of this dread disease, and hopefully either a cure or a way to prevent the spread of yellow fever. One of the key players in this drama was Cuban Dr. Carlos Finlay, who had theorized that mosquito bites spread the disease, but he had been unable to clearly prove it. The team of doctors and Army volunteers used the scientific method to work through a number of possible causes -- with some success, some failure, and some inconclusive results. The pressure to succeed and solve the mystery was tremendous, as lives quite literally depended upon the team's work. The layout of this book is excellent, with illustrations and photos on every spread, each one important to the text on that page. There are exceptional source notes, divided by chapter in the back, so it's easy to tell how well researched this is. 7th grade and up!
    • 3/5
      A compelling account of how early medical researchers discovered and isolated the causes of yellow fever in the early part of the 20th century.Don't start this book if you have just eaten, and I might make the same recommendation for the following description of the symptoms that open The Secret of the Yellow Death: at onset, an icy chill, followed by a crushing headache, yellowing skin and the whites of eyes the color of lemons, delirium and blood-clotted vomit come next and violent spasms. Within three days a victim could be dead.You would think that something this virulent would have had its heyday during the plague years, hundreds of years ago, but the outbreak that consumed Cuba and eventually lead to the discovery of the yellow fever virus happened barely 100 years ago. That a combined team of scientists from the United States and Cuba solved the mystery through dogged determination despite a general disbelief among other scientists that mosquitoes were the carrier gives the story its tension. After all, if it wasn't mosquitoes, then what was the cause? Heading up the team was Walter Reed, a doctor who was sure that the source of the outbreak that was sweeping across Cuba could be discovered. Even from a distance, when he was called back to the States, Reed kept contact with the team of four other doctors who attempted to actively manufacture ill patients in order to prove their theories. Even as they had successes, managing to grow carrier mosquitoes and getting them to bite willing recruits, some managed to avoid illness. At each turn it is as if the solution is within reach and then comes another setback. But with each trial and set of circumstances they learn a little more until, finally, they isolate the virus and understand the gestation period and the crucial timing necessary to replicate the illness in a controlled setting. But many of the doctors involved died before the final results were discovered and understood by those who carried their efforts forward. It's a compelling mystery because of the variables that must be discovered both through trial and error and because little was known or understood about the simple organisms known as viruses. Jurmain has chosen to get close to the story, to use primary source material to reconstruct the narrative of how the scientists worked to come to a conclusion. She admits early on that she is unable to include source material for the Cuban doctors involved because that material is unavailable. It would be nice to think that some day normalized relations between Cuba and the US might give us the full picture of the story, but as it is written there are few missing gaps of consequence and the story doesn't suffer for the lack.While not profusely illustrated it does contain plenty of photos from the era that remind the reader just how crude the practice of medicine was just 100 years ago. The crude hospital and research facilities, the crude metal syringes, and the handwritten medical charts all add to the overall mood of the story, yellowed with age and looking for all the world like they might still carry the sickness with them. There is an appropriate creepiness to The Secret of the Yellow Death and that will be a huge part of its appeal to readers. Gross when it needs to be, creepy and disgusting in a scientific setting, and the constant question – are they ever going to figure this out? – combine for a compelling read.
    • 5/5
      The intriguing and exciting story of US Army Major Walter Reed, MD and his dedicated group of fellow physicians and researchers who set out to uncover the true cause of Yellow Fever, the scourge of tropical and semi tropical areas across the globe.