yellow fever

noun

: an acute infectious disease that is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America, is marked by symptoms (such as fever, muscle pain, and headache) of sudden onset which typically resolve within a few days but are sometimes followed by more serious symptoms (such as jaundice, high fever, and hemorrhage), and is caused by a flavivirus (species Yellow fever virus of the genus Flavivirus) transmitted especially by the yellow-fever mosquito

Examples of yellow fever in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The mosquito can transmit a number of fatal infections, including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, Zika, West Nile and EEE. —Matthew Binnicker, Forbes, 7 Sep. 2024

Reed’s trials would ultimately help prove Finlay right that mosquitos transmit disease, specifically yellow fever. —Dylan Matthews, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018

County officials warned that the mosquito can transmit diseases like dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever. —Nollyanne Delacruz, The Mercury News, 16 Nov. 2024

In 2021 and 2022, the test was able to link cases of encephalitis among transplant recipients to yellow fever in their organ donor. —Aria Bendix, NBC News, 12 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1738, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

yellow fever

noun

: an infectious disease of warm regions (as sub-Saharan Africa) that is marked by fever, headache, muscle aches, yellowness of the skin, and sometimes death and that is caused by a virus transmitted by a mosquito

Medical Definition

yellow fever

noun

: an infectious disease of sudden onset that is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America and includes acute symptoms (as fever, muscle pain, headache, and nausea) which typically resolve within a few days but are sometimes followed by more serious symptoms (as jaundice, abdominal pain, high fever, hemorrhage, and kidney impairment) which may lead to death

Note: Yellow fever is caused by a single-stranded RNA virus of the genus Flavivirus (species Yellow fever virus) transmitted from monkey to human or human to human especially by the yellow-fever mosquito.

Few Americans realize that yellow fever was not always a disease of the faraway tropics. In 1878, an outbreak of yellow fever—the virus carried to the United States in mosquitoes from Africa—killed 20,000 people in the Mississippi Valley.

—Mary Roach, The New York Times Book Review

Although mass vaccination campaigns in Africa between the 1940s and 1960s led to the near disappearance of yellow fever, inadequately immunized populations and urbanization set the stage for the disease to reemerge. By the 1990s, there were an estimated 200 000 annual cases, with 30 000 deaths.

—Clem Spalding, The Journal of the American Medical Association

called also yellow jack