Yellow Fever

Yellow fever spread from Africa to South America probably at the time of Spanish conquest and subsequent slave trade in the sixteenth century. Several episodes were recorded in Africa, Americas and Europe since the seventeenth century. It was considered most dangerous in the nineteenth century. This disease killed over 30,000 labours engaged in digging the Panama Canal; work had to be stopped in Panama isthmus in 1889. In 1898, 6000 soldiers died in the Spanish-American war; 969 in the battle rest due to yellow fever.