Lazear, Jesse William (1866-1900), an American physician, became known for his work in controlling yellow fever. In 1900, an outbreak of yellow fever occurred in Havana, Cuba. Lazear was appointed a member of the Yellow Fever Commission, which was organized to study the disease. The commission proved that the bite of a mosquito transmitted yellow fever. During the course of the commission’s experiments in Cuba, Lazear was bitten accidentally by an infected mosquito and died of yellow fever on Sept. 25, 1900.
Lazear was born on May 2, 1866, in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned a medical degree from Columbia College (now part of Columbia University) in 1892.
