2023 article
Mapping An Epidemiology Origin Story
Ramirez, M. (2023, August 4).
open access via doi.org (repository)
Source: ORCID
Added: January 28, 2024
A decade before John Snow was investigating cholera in London, James Ormiston McWilliam was across the world studying yellow fever in Cape Verde.McWilliam undertook a massive effort to interview all of the people on the island.His interviews were extraordinarily valuable and unique in that they were so extensive and were done without regard to race or social status.He conducted hundreds of interviews of mostly people of color -native, colonized and enslaved peoples.The first-hand accounts and observations of those working close to the illness proved fundamental to understanding disease transmission.This approach of utilizing interviews would become an integral part of the field of epidemiology.