Walter Reed, M.D., (September 13, 1851 - November 23, 1902) was an American Army surgeon who led the team which confirmed the theory first set forth in 1881 and proven by the Cuban doctor and scientist Dr. Carlos Finlay that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than direct contact.

Walter Reed was born and raised in Belroi, an unincorporated community in Gloucester County in eastern Virginia's Middle Peninsula region to Lemuel Sutton Reed (a Methodist minister) and Pharaba White. Soon after graduation from the University of Virginia, Reed became a gynecologist with the US Army in a time of great advances in medicine due to widespread acceptance of Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease as well as the methods of studying bacteria developed by Robert Koch. Reed worked closely with George Miller Sternberg, the Army Surgeon General, who was one of the founders of bacteriology.

Yellow fever became a problem for the Army during the Spanish American War, when the disease felled thousands of soldiers in Cuba. In May 1900, Reed, a major, was appointed president of a board "to study infectious diseases in Cuba paying particular attention to yellow fever." This board eventually confirmed both the transmission by mosquitoes and disproved the common belief that yellow fever could be transmitted by clothing and bedding soiled by the body fluids and excrement of yellow fever sufferers - articles known as fomites.

The risky but fruitful research work was done with human volunteers, including some of the medical personnel such as Clara Maass and Jesse William Lazear who allowed themselves to be deliberately infected. The research work with the disease under Reed's leadership was largely responsible for stemming the mortality rates from yellow fever during the building of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s, something that had confounded the French attempt to build in that region only 30 years earlier.

After this work, Reed resumed his position as professor of bacteriology in the Army Medical School, and as professor of pathology and bacteriology at the George Washington University Medical School. His health had been in decline following an appendectomy, and in 1902, he died of peritonitis, aged 51.

He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The breakthrough in the yellow fever research is widely considered his greatest accomplishment. Named in his honor, Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C. was opened on May 1, 1909. As the premier military medical facility in the eastern United States, it became Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

In 1929, the Walter Reed Medal was awarded posthumously to Walter Reed for his work in discovering the cause of yellow fever. The Walter Reed Army Medical Center bears his name and continues his legacy. Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California is also named in his honor.

A song named "Walter Reed" was penned by Michael Penn which tells of a soldier's desire to be taken to him.

                       

Courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed