Infectious Diseases
Timeline
Dr. R. P. Ames Graduates Tulane Medical Department
Dr. R. P. Ames, an 1890 graduate of the Tulane Medical Department, served as a contract surgeon with Major Walter Reed during the famous yellow fever experimentations in Cuba at Camp Lazear.
1890
Yellow Fever Research
Reed and his team systematically demonstrated that mosquitoes only picked up the yellow fever virus if they fed on a person during the first three days of infection. After a period of days of incubation, the mosquitoes could then pass on the virus to another human through a bite. Ames himself contracted the disease and died in 1914. Ames received several awards posthumously for his work revealing the cause of yellow fever, including the Congressional Medal of Honor.
1890-1914
Dr. Charles Bass Dean of the School of Medicine
Dr. Charles Bass graduated from Tulane in 1899 and was Dean of the School of Medicine from 1922 to 1940. Bass was known worldwide for his research in bacteriology and parasitology. He is credited with another Tulane pioneer, Dr. Foster M. Johns, as the first scientist to cultivate the parasite that causes malaria.
1922-1940
Dr. Margaret H.D. Smith First to Apply Triple Chemotherapy to Meningitis
Dr. Margaret H.D. Smith was an international expert on childhood tuberculosis and a pioneer in the field of infectious diseases. She spent much of her career at Tulane School of Medicine and was the first to apply triple chemotherapy in the treatment of acute bacterial meningitis. Along with Horace Hodes, she co-authored the groundbreaking paper "Sulfa Treatment, 16 Meningococcal Cases: Combination Therapy.
1943
Dr. William Mogabgab First to Isolate Common Cold Virus
In 1955, Dr. William Mogabgab, a Professor of Medicine and Section Chief of Infectious Diseases, became the first to isolate the common cold virus. He followed this achievement in 1966 with an exhaustive study describing the behavior, properties, and characteristics of influenza viruses in tissue cultures.
