Yellow fever became well known in the early 1900s when Americans were building the Panama Canal. This was traced to a mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and mosquito control activities were instigated. The disease is caused by a species of Flavivirus. This disease is still a problem in tropical America and Africa. Monkeys can serve as hosts for the disease. The annual human death count might be around 30,000 per year.

The Flaviviridae family contains viruses that can cause several serious diseaes including yellow fever, dengue, and encephalitis. In many of these diseases an intermediate arthropod such as a tick or mosquito is involved.

Typical viruses include tiny organisms that contain both a nucleic acid and some proteins. Many of these cause serious illness in humans. Included herein is AIDS, yellow fever, Mumps, Measles, and Hepatitus. Estimates indicate that over 30,000 species are under study with only about 3,000 recognized.

e have lumped all the virus like lifeforms herein, as science is still working on the taxonomy tree in this area.

Viruses are the most primitive of lifeforms. These organisms are usually too small to be seen by typical microscopes. Viruses are composed of a acid nucleus and some proteins. These organisms need to invade a living cell of a host in order to grow and reproduce. Several well known diseases are caused by viruses including Hepatitis, HIV, Mumps, Influenze, Rabies, and Yellow Fever.

There are several even more primitive virus like creatures that include viroids and prions. (Viroids can cause some plant health issues, and Prions can cause the mad cow disease.)

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