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The Long Road to the Yellow Fever Vaccine

It would be an understatement to say that the road to success in fighting yellow fever was bumpy. Six scientific researchers supported by the RF died in the field during the quest for an effective vaccine. One of them, bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi, remains revered in his home country, Japan. With his portrait on the 1,000 yen note, Noguchi is perhaps the only foundation staff member ever to be commemorated on any nation’s currency. Noguchi came to the United States in 1900, and shortly thereafter began working in Simon Flexner’s laboratory at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, founded by John D. Rockefeller in New York City in 1901.

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 The Yellow Fever Vaccine Journey: Milestones and Future Directions

Yellow fever, a mosquito-borne viral hemorrhagic disease, remains a significant public health concern in endemic regions of Africa and South America. The development of the yellow fever vaccine marked a milestone in virology and immunization. In the 1930s, Max Theiler created the 17D live-attenuated vaccine, a breakthrough that has achieved global recognition and continues to underpin prevention strategies.

Articles of Interest

A controversial vaccine

“Yellow fever was highly problematic, with the same 40% mortality rate as today.” The battle for priority in the discovery of the disease-causing agent raged on until in 1928 the yellow fever microbe was determined to be a virus that had been isolated from naturally infected monkeys in West Africa.

Advances and controversies in yellow fever vaccination

Ever since its development in 1937, the live-attenuated 17D yellow fever (YF) vaccine has been one of the most effective vaccines available to man.

Philanthropy Roundtable

In 1931, Rockefeller Institute researcher Dr. Bruce Wilson volunteered to be injected with a new vaccine developed in mice. Held under strict isolation and supervision, he did not become ill and developed immunity. The vaccine required serum from already-immune humans, which meant it could not be produced in volume, but at least there was finally a means of protecting lab staff.

Re-thinking yellow fever vaccines: fighting old foes with new generation vaccines

Despite the existence of a highly efficient yellow fever vaccine, yellow fever reemergence throughout Africa and the Americas has put 900 million people in 47 countries at risk of contracting the disease. Although the vaccine has been key to controlling yellow fever epidemics, its live-attenuated nature comes with a range of contraindications that prompts advising against its administration to pregnant and lactating women, immunocompromised individuals, and those with hypersensitivity to chicken egg proteins.

The 1942 Massive Contamination of Yellow Fever Vaccine: A Public Health Consequence of Scientific Arrogance

In the late 1930s, the 17D vaccine against yellow fever was produced in record time. 17D was and is an excellent vaccine. Its rapid diffusion led, however, to several problems, the most important among them being the 1942 massive contamination of the vaccine distributed to the US Army by the hepatitis B virus. The US part of this story is relatively well-known, but its Brazilian part much less so. In 1940, scientists who were producing the 17D vaccine in Rio de Janeiro found that it was contaminated by an “icterus virus” that originated in normal human serum. They solved this problem through the exclusion of human serum from vaccine production, but failed to persuade their US colleagues to do the same.

The Yellow Fever Vaccine: A History

After failed attempts at producing bacteria-based vaccines, the discovery of a viral agent causing yellow fever and its isolation in monkeys opened new avenues of research. Subsequent advances were the attenuation of the virus in mice and later in tissue culture; the creation of the seed lot system to avoid spontaneous mutations; the ability to produce the vaccine on a large scale in eggs; and the removal of dangerous contaminants.

Yellow fever, the story of a re-emerging virus

Referred to as "yellow" fever because of the jaundice it causes in some patients, this viral disease was first described in the mid-16th century in Mexico. Although it is endemic in Africa and South and Central America, there is an effective, harmless vaccine, which offers lifelong protection and can be administered with a single injection.

“Actions Imposed by Circumstances”: The Colonial Origins of The Yellow Fever Vaccine Debate, 1940s–1970s

Why did the French neurotropic vaccine against yellow fever remain in global use from 1945 to the early 1980s, despite mounting evidence that it could cause fatal encephalitis in small children?