1901

William Gorgas sets in motion first mosquito-destruction campaign in Havana, including elimination of all mosquito-breeding places. Yet, in 1902 and 1903 New Orleans City Council voted down ordinance requiring mosquito-proof screens over all cisterns due to expense, during which time the mosquito theory was openly ridiculed by public press. People of NO simply unwilling to do anything in the absence of an actual epidemic (Humphreys, 152-153). Most physicians and southern public health officials were reluctant to give up belief that fomites (bedding, clothing in contact with the infected) did not also transmit yellow fever (154-155)