三位以身试药的英雄.docxVIP

By Nancy Steinbach and George Grow08 April, 2013Photo: Cancer researcher Anita RobertsSHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Im Shirley Griffith.CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And Im Christopher Cruise. Today, we tell the stories of some medical heroes.(MUSIC)SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: At the start of the twentieth century, the United States Army had a Yellow Fever Commission. The Army wanted medical experts to study yellow fever and find a way to stop the disease. One team went to Cuba to test the idea that mosquitoes spread yellow fever. The team was led by Walter Reed, the Army doctor and scientist noted for his work on infectious diseases.In August of nineteen hundred, the researchers began to raise mosquitoes and infect them with the virus. Nine of the Americans let the infected insects bite them. Nothing happened. Then two more let the mosquitoes bite them. Both men developed yellow fever.CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: A doctor named Jesse William Lazear recognized that the mosquitoes that bit the last two men had been older than the others. Doctor Lazear proved that mosquitoes did carry yellow Researcher Jesse LazearDoctor Lazear himself was also bitten. No one is sure how it happened. He said it happened accidentally as he treated others. But some people said he placed the mosquito on his arm as part of the experiment. Medical historians say he may have reported the bite as an accident so his family would not be denied money from his life insurance policy. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Jesse Lazear died of yellow fever. His death shocked the others on the team in Cuba. But they continued their work.More people let themselves be bitten by mosquitoes. Others were injected with blood from the victims of yellow fever. Some people in this test group developed the disease, but all recovered to full health.Members of the team praised the work by Jesse Lazear. They called it a sacrifice to research that led the way to one of the greatest medical discoveries of the century.CHR