Victoria’s Read

More than a century ago, Clara Maass, a lovely young woman became a martyr to the cause of finding a cure for yellow fever.

1. Clara Maass was born:

-New York City
-East Orange, New Jersey
-London, England
-Berlin, Germany

2. Clara Maass trained as a nurse in which of these hospitals?

-Newark German Hospital
-Bellevue Hospital, New York
-St. Vincent’s Medical Center, New York
-Newark General Women and Children

3. How is yellow fever transmitted to humans?

-Mosquito bite
-Contaminated food
-Tse Tse Fly
-Fomites (carriers)

4. Clara Maass volunteered to be bitten by mosquitos for yellow fever research.

-True or False

5. She has been honored since her death in what way?

-A place in the Nursing Hall of Fame
-All of these
-Commemorative postage stamps
-A hospital was named for her

ANSWERS

1. Clara Maass was born Clara Louise Maass, June 28, 1876 in East Orange, New Jersey, the eldest of ten children born to  German immigrants.

2. When Clara was 17, she entered the Christina Trefz Training school at Newark German Hospital, only the 4th such nursing school at the time in New Jersey. She graduated in 1895 after two years of arduous training and classes in German. At age 21, she was named head nurse and supplemented her income with private duty nursing.

3. The culprit is the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. This is not a mosquito indigenous to all regions.

4. She was bitten by “loaded” mosquitoes a number of times between Mar and Aug of 1901 and died on Aug 24 of that year at the age of 25. Her death created shock waves that ended human experimentation. She was the only woman in the experiment. Her mother received $100.

5. She has been honored by both Cuba and the United Stated with postage stamps. The original German Hospital in Newark is now the Clara Maass Medical Center, the first hospital to be named for a nurse. She was inducted into the ANA nursing Hall of Fame in 1976.

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