the z’s

 In our Disease (it’s like dis-ease. isnt that fun.) class, we recently went to the Museum of Science and Industry and learned about the effects of a sickness on a body. As part of the Action Project, we picked a disease and made up a patient who was afflicted, so I made up a Spanish-American war veteran who caught the Yellow Fever while fighting in Cuba. Enjoy the presentation:

The patient, Dutch Henderson, described his grips with the Yellow Fever: the symptoms he experienced were jaundice (abnormal yellowing of the skin of which the yellow fever gets its name), fever, and muscle pain. Dutch probably contracted the Yellow Fever via a mosquito strain in cuba called Aedes Aegypti, the most common spreader of Yellow Fever. He was able to be taken back to the US for treatment, where all that could be done was aspirin and elevated water intake. Dutch got the Yellow Fever before there was a vaccine, so all he could really do was rest it off and in a couple of days he’d (hopefully) be ok, and he did. Many of his fellow soldiers in Cuba and Puerto Rico didn’t take the Yellow Fever as well as he did, and ended up experiencing Cytokine Storm (release of inflammatory liquid into the lungs, sometimes causing choking) or sometimes organ failure.

The disease works by entering the body (usually through mosquito) and then multiplying in the lymph nodes. After multiplying, they attack the liver and lungs, which could lead to cytokine storm and multiple organ failure, which could be fatal. The mosquitos that carry the Yellow Fever are most commonly found in the rainforests of south america and sub-saharan africa, and 200,000 cases are estimated each year, with around a 7-8% rate of mortality.

Here’s a drawing of how it effects the organs:

As you can see, the lymph nodes, kidneys, liver, brain and lungs are all there.

sources:

“Areas with Risk of Yellow Fever Virus Transmission in Africa.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 Nov. 2021, www.cdc.gov/yellowfever/maps/africa.html. 

“Areas with Risk of Yellow Fever Virus Transmission in South America.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Jan. 2019, www.cdc.gov/yellowfever/maps/south_america.html. 

“Yellow Fever.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/health-topics/yellow-fever#tab=tab_1.

“Scourge of the Spanish American War.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/fever-scourge-spanish-american-war/.