Henry Rose Carter was an American physician, epidemiologist, and public health official who served as Assistant Surgeon General of the United States. His work was critical in malaria and yellow fever.
Carter discovered the extrinsic incubation period of yellow fever, research fundamental to public health. Alongside Carlos Finlay, Carter was nominated for the 1904 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work identifying the mosquito vector of yellow fever. Carter is considered the Father of modern quarantine.
Biography edit
Early life and quarantine work edit
Henry Rose Carter was born on August 25, 1852 at Clinton Plantation in Caroline County, Virginia.[1][2] As a youth, he was shot in the leg during a skirmish between Union and Confederate sympathizers.[3] He studied civil engineering at the University of Virginia before attending medical school at the University of Maryland, graduating in 1879. Carter joined the Marine Hospital Service (MHS), now the United States Public Health Service. Amid a severe outbreak of yellow fever in the lower Mississippi Valley, Carter was immediately dispatched to Memphis, Tennessee.[2] Over the following 9 years, he was stationed in MHS hospitals across the South, and became fascinated by yellow fever.[3]
In 1888, Carter was positioned at Ship Island, which lies off the coast of Mississippi, as quarantine officer. For the following decade, Carter worked to analyze and refine U.S. quarantine procedures. He developed a method of ship disinfection: sulphur dioxide fumigation and deck washing with mercuric chloride.[3] Carter also instituted the use of flowing, steaming water as a disinfectant.[4] From sailors, he determined that the yellow fever incubation period was shorter than six days. He established a uniform seven day quarantine period for ships following disinfection. For ships from Cuba and Mexico, he encouraged the disinfection procedure be conducted en route to expedite the process.[3] For these innovations, Carter is considered the father of modern quarantine.[4] Despite his efforts, yellow fever outbreaks were still common across the American South.[3]
Yellow fever incubation studies edit
In summer 1898, Carter traveled to a yellow fever outbreak in two isolated Mississippi towns: Orwood and Taylor. The location was appealing to Carter in that the residents lived in isolated farmhouses, allowing him to more easily deduce when transmission occurred.[5] Carter observed 12 households, carefully recording the dates of incident cases, secondary cases, and visits by neighbors. Curiously, Carter found than visitors to a recent infection never fell ill, but those who visited after two weeks usually did acquire yellow fever.[6]
In 1899, he was assigned to Havana, Cuba by the MHS as Chief Quarantine Officer.[1] There, he discussed his Mississippi findings with researchers Carlos Finlay and Walter Reed.[6]
The American Public Health Association deemed the work "a brilliant piece of epidemiological study".[4]
Panama Canal Zone and later life edit
[Carter's] name will always be linked with those who brought the final solution to the great problem of yellow fever control.
— The American Public Health Association, 1925[4]
From 1904 to 1909, Carter worked as the director of hospitals in the Panama Canal Zone.[1] Carter wrote a series of seminal papers on the control and eradication of mosquito-borne diseases.[7]
In 1904, Sir Ronald Ross nominated Carter and Carlos Finlay for the 1904 Nobel Prize in Medicine due to their work identifying the mosquito vector of yellow fever.[1]
In 1915, a special act of Congress designated him as the Assistant Surgeon General of the United States.[1] As part of the Rockefeller Commission in 1916, he journeyed to Latin America.[4] From 1917 to 1918, he oversaw the federal governments efforts to control malaria, particularly in US military bases.[4] Carter retired from service in 1920.[4] However, he served as an advisor on sanitation for the Peruvian government from 1920 to 1921.[4]
On September 14, 1925, Carter died in Washington, DC following a long illness.[1][4] In an obituary, the American Public Health Association declared him "one of our brightest stars".[4] A collection of his papers is held by the University of Virginia.[8]
References edit
Citations edit
- ^ a b c d e f "Biography of Dr. Henry Rose Carter" (2001), p. 11.
- ^ a b Schultz (2009), p. 1682.
- ^ a b c d e Clements (2017), p. 212.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j 1925 Obituary.
- ^ Clements (2017), pp. 212–213.
- ^ a b Clements (2017), p. 213.
- ^ Stern (2005), p. 677.
- ^ "The Carter Papers". Manuscripts and Archival Material. The University of Virginia. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
Works cited edit
- Schultz, Myron G. (2009). "Henry Rose Carter". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 15 (10). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 1682–1684.
- "Biography of Dr. Henry Rose Carter". Military Medicine. 166 (1): 11. 2001.
- "Henry Rose Carter (obituary)". The American Journal of Public Health. 15 (11): 994. 1925.
- Stern, Alexandra Minna (2005). "The Public Health Service in the Panama Canal: A Forgotten Chapter". Public Health Chronicles. 120: 675–679.
- Clements, Alan N.; Harbach, Ralph E. (2017). "History of the discovery of the mode of transmission of yellow fever virus". Journal of Vector Ecology. 42 (2): 208–222.
- "Henry Rose Carter". Science. 62 (1606): 320. 1925.