Who volunteered to be bitten by carrier mosquitoes to demonstrate how disease spread during the Spanish-American War?

• A. Clara Maass
• B. Florence Nightingale
• C. Lillian Wald
• D. Mary Eliza Mahoney

Answer: (A)

This question centers on a historical example of how researchers demonstrated disease transmission by a vector. During the yellow fever work in Cuba around the Spanish-American War, Clara Maass volunteered to be bitten by carrier mosquitoes to prove that yellow fever could spread through a mosquito bite, not person-to-person. Her willingness to participate helped provide evidence that mosquito transmission was the route, a finding that supported the work of the Walter Reed Commission. She ultimately contracted yellow fever and died, which also raises important ethical considerations about human experimentation. The other figures listed are known for nursing reform, public health advocacy, or pioneering nursing roles, but they were not involved in these mosquito-bite experiments.