Reed, Walter (1851-1902), a medical officer in the United States Army, helped show how to control typhoid fever and yellow fever. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, he became chief of a commission to study the origin and spread of typhoid fever in Army camps. Experiments showed that flies were the most important carriers of the infection, and that dust and uncleanliness helped spread it.
In 1900 and 1901, Reed headed a commission to investigate an epidemic of yellow fever among American troops in Cuba. He and the other doctors, including James Carroll and Jesse Lazear, carried on a series of daring experiments. Several of the doctors, as well as a number of soldiers, volunteered to be infected by yellow fever germs to study the course of the disease. All of them contracted the disease but survived. Two others, who were not volunteers, became infected accidentally and died as a result. The experiments established that the bite of certain mosquitoes transmits yellow fever. In addition, the experiments showed how the disease might be controlled. See Yellow fever .
Reed was born on Sept. 13, 1851, in Gloucester County, Virginia. He studied medicine at the University of Virginia and at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City. He entered the United States Army in 1875. Reed died on Nov. 22, 1902. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Bethesda, in Maryland, is named for him.
