On February 9, 1901, 3 days after he had presented to the Pan American Medical Congress the results of the experiments at Camp Lazear, Major Reed sailed for home, leaving Carroll behind in Havana to finish up certain details, including winding up the affairs of Camp Lazear, which was closed on 1 March 1901." 44[1]
In Havana also were Dr. Finlay, the theorist whose theories had been vindicated by experiment, and his friend— and Reed's— Maj. William Crawford Gorgas, whose original skepticism as to the theory hat! been replaced by acceptance, and whose acceptance and resulting action was to give the theory its first practical application. Dr. Gorgas still was not convinced that the mosquito was the only means of natural transmission of the disease, but realizing that the insects were effective carriers, he declared war on the Stegomyia fasciata in Havana.
Yellow fever had claimed an average of nearly 500 lives in Havana annually for the 20 years, 1880-1899. In 1899 and 1900, the city was "cleaned up," with good effect as to general health, but still there were, in 1900, more than 300 deaths from yellow fever. In January 1901, there were seven deaths, and in February, five. In February, the new regulations as to mosquito control were put into effect. In March, four new cases were reported, with one death. In April, there were three cases and no deaths; in May, four cases and no deaths; in June, neither a case nor a death. In July, the disease was re-introduced into Havana from the interior, with three cases and one death. August saw eight new cases and two deaths; September, five cases and one death; October, two cases but no death— and thereafter, for the remainder of 1901 and the entire year of 1902, neither new cases nor deaths from the scourge that for over 140 years had never been absent from Havana's streets and homes. 45[2]
The task of mosquito control in a tropical city was prodigious in its difficulties and infinitely vexing in its details, but it was accomplished by the vigor, firmness, patience, and tact of the great health administrator, Gorgas. And in its accomplishment, it provided the perfect proof of the correctness of the conclusions of the great medical discoverer, Reed.
Back in Washington, Reed continued his work for the Yellow Fever Commission, as well as his work as Curator of the Medical Museum and professor of bacteriology at Columbian (now George Washington) University. He was,
