The story of Walter Reed, an Army physician whose groundbreaking research reshaped the fields of epidemiology and biomedicine, intertwines with the history of Kenya through the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). This partnership has fostered medical advancements and strengthened health security in both the United States and Kenya.
Walter Reed, whose work on yellow fever revolutionized medicine.
Walter Reed: A Pioneer in Medicine
Walter Reed was born in Gloucester, Virginia. After two years, Reed completed the M.D. degree in 1869, two months before he turned 18. He was the youngest-ever recipient of an M.D. Reed then enrolled at the New York University's Bellevue Hospital Medical College in Manhattan, New York City, where he obtained a second M.D. in 1870, as his brother Christopher attempted to set up a legal practice.
After Reed passed a grueling thirty-hour examination in 1875, the army medical corps enlisted him as an assistant surgeon. This allowed him both professional opportunities and modest financial security to establish and support a family. Over the next sixteen years, the Army assigned the career officer to different outposts, where he was responsible not only for American military personnel and their dependents, but also various Native American tribes, at one point looking after several hundred Apaches, including Geronimo. Reed noticed the devastation epidemics could wreak and maintained his concerns about sanitary conditions.
In 1896, Reed first distinguished himself as a medical investigator. He proved that yellow fever among enlisted men stationed near the Potomac River was not a result of drinking the river water. He showed officials that the enlisted men who got yellow fever had a habit of taking trails through the local swampy woods at night. Their fellow officers without yellow fever did not do so.
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In May 1900, Major Reed returned to Cuba when he was appointed head of an investigative board charged by Army Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg to study tropical diseases, particularly yellow fever. Army Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba, the Board demonstrated that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes and disproved the common belief that it was transmitted by fomites (clothing and bedding soiled by the body fluids and excrement of yellow fever victims). This dangerous research was done using human volunteers, including some of the medical personnel, who allowed themselves to be bitten by mosquitos infected with yellow fever.
Reed returned from Cuba in 1901, continuing to speak and publish on the topic of yellow fever.
In November 1902, Reed suffered a ruptured appendix. He died on November 23, 1902, of the resulting peritonitis, at age 51. Reed's breakthrough in yellow fever research is widely considered a milestone in biomedicine, opening new vistas of research and humanitarianism. It was largely an extension of Carlos J. Finlay's work, carried out during the 1870s in Cuba, which finally came to prominence in 1900. He presented this theory at the 1881 International Sanitary Conference, where it was well received. A year later Finlay identified a mosquito of the genus Aedes as the organism transmitting yellow fever.
This discovery helped William C. Gorgas reduce the incidence and prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases in Panama during the American campaign, from 1903 onwards, to construct the Panama Canal.
WRAIR-Africa: A Legacy of Partnership in Kenya
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) has a significant presence in Kenya through its WRAIR-Africa division. Activated on a temporary basis in 1969 at the invitation of the Kenyan government to address a trypanosomiasis outbreak, the venture was made permanent in 1973. Originally paired with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, WRAIR-Africa has for decades also operated in close collaboration with the Kenya Defense Forces as well as civilian organizations, particularly the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).
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Throughout its history, the organization has undergone several name changes. military’s scientific workforce are in doubt. Army Medical Research Directorate-Africa, and 20th anniversary of its component laboratory in the Kenyan city of Kericho.
The 20th anniversary celebration of Kericho was a smaller event including WRAIR leaders, scientists, community leaders and organizational partners. WRAIR and USAMRD-A study military-relevant diseases to develop field-ready products to ensure Soldiers are medically prepared to fight in all five stages of multi-domain operations.
It is the story of building a highly skilled Kenyan biomedical research and surveillance workforce dedicated to global health security, one that now performs the lion’s share of the lab’s work. Since 2002, WRAIR-Africa has trained 15 Kenyan PhDs, 69 master’s students, and 8 post-docs. Both through on-the-job training at KEMRI’s WRAIR-supported basic and clinical research sites and through formal academic mentorship, WRAIR-Africa’s Kenyan scientists bolster Kenya’s capacity to protect its citizens.
It is a story of steadily generating new knowledge. WRAIR-Africa has published dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies by Kenyan and American researchers that advance understanding of malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other biothreats, all the while enhancing both the readiness of American servicemen and women and the health security of all Kenyans. The lab has conducted genomic sequencing of Covid samples during the pandemic, and continues to do so today, and it has detected-and continues to detect-antimicrobial resistance across the region.
The partnership is proof that consistent health engagement over more than five decades results in gains that protect multiple partner military forces operating in the region against endemic infectious diseases. That rests on WRAIR-Africa’s remarkable reach: in addition to its Kenyan partners, it actively collaborates with Uganda, Nigeria, and Tanzania, opening a broad window to assess infectious disease threats throughout central Africa.
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Current work includes surveillance of endemic infectious disease threats to inform combatant command medical prevention efforts as well as countermeasure development strategies; a phase 4 implementation study of the world’s most advanced malaria vaccine, RTS,S, with GlaxoSmithKline; continued research into HIV care and prevention and upcoming trials to evaluate a vaccine against traveler’s diarrhea.
Mosquito larvae, vectors of diseases like yellow fever and malaria, are a key focus of WRAIR-Africa's research.
Covid-19 revealed that improved data, innovative research and development on infectious diseases, and building human workforce capabilities in Africa are essential to health security. WRAIR-Africa contributes across all three of those fronts.
Challenges and the Future of WRAIR-Africa
While celebrating these achievements, on the occasion of President Ruto’s state visit, it is important also to focus on fixing WRAIR-Africa’s vulnerabilities, and to urge the Biden administration and Congress to do more to secure the future of this partnership.
WRAIR-Africa is seeing its foundational funding weaken considerably. Investments in surveillance have declined and are at risk of further cuts. Disease-specific research investments in malaria and other infectious diseases have also declined.
High-level leaders at the White House, the Department of Defense, and Congress need to speak out, loudly and often, in support of guaranteeing WRAIR-Africa’s sustainability. The argument should begin from a single simple point: WRAIR-Africa is the story of successful, decades-long partnership with Kenya across scientific, public health, and security priorities. With sustained investment, it has improved the security of Americans and Kenyans alike. It is in the vital national interests of the United States, and the national interests of Kenya, to see that success endure.
Between May 21 and 24, 2024, Kenyan president William Ruto will visit Atlanta and Washington, D.C., for a White House state visit, the first African head of state to be so highly honored since 2008.
Table: Key Contributions of WRAIR-Africa
| Area | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Workforce Development | Trained 15 Kenyan PhDs, 69 master’s students, and 8 post-docs since 2002. |
| Research and Publications | Published dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies on malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other biothreats. |
| Disease Surveillance | Conducted genomic sequencing of Covid samples and detected antimicrobial resistance. |
| Regional Collaboration | Actively collaborates with Uganda, Nigeria, and Tanzania to assess infectious disease threats. |
What Did Walter Reed Discover? - Science Through Time
Honoring Walter Reed's Legacy
In 1912, he posthumously received what came to be known as the Walter Reed Medal in recognition of his work to combat yellow fever. A tropical medicine course is also named after him, Walter Reed Tropical Medicine Course. Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH), Washington, D.C. was opened on May 1, 1909, seven years after his death. Reed Hall at Radford College (now Radford University) was constructed in 1939 as the original home for the sciences and named for Dr. Walter Reed. Reed appears in sculpture on the great stone chancel screen at Riverside Church, NYC.
The National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland holds a collection of his papers regarding typhoid fever studies. Philip Showalter Hench, a Nobel Prize winner for Physiology or Medicine in 1950, maintained a long interest in Walter Reed and yellow fever. His collection of thousands of items-documents, photographs, and artifacts-is at the University of Virginia in the Philip S.
John Miltern portrayed Reed in the 1934 Broadway play, Yellow Jack, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Sidney Howard, in collaboration with Paul de Kruif. Lewis Stone took the part in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1938 film adaptation of the play, Yellow Jack. The play and screenplay were adapted for television in episodes (both titled "Yellow Jack") of Celanese Theatre (1952) and of Producers' Showcase (1955). Jeffrey Hunter played Reed in a 1962 episode of the anthology show Death Valley Days, titled "Suzie". In 2006, PBS's American Experience television series broadcast, "The Great Fever", a program exploring Reed's yellow fever campaign.
Reed's name is featured on the frieze of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
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