On Feb. 28, 1929, the Walter Reed Medal, a military decoration of the U.S. Army was created by an act of the U.S. Congress. The Act recognized the accomplishments of both U.S. civilian and Army doctors who investigated the cause and treatment of yellow fever between 1901 and 1902. Major Walter Reed became known as the leading researcher to discover that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes.

The Walter Reed Medal is awarded every year to recognize distinguished accomplishments in the field of tropical medicine. The story of how Walter Reed led the Yellow Fever Commission in Havana that discovered the mosquito vector of the disease is legendary.

The first award was made to Mrs. Walter Reed and to the Rockefeller Foundation. It is of interest that in 1942 in a spirit of ecumenism, the award was made posthumously to Carlos J. Finlay – a Cuban contemporary of Walter Reed – to whom many Latin Americans credit the original idea that yellow fever was a mosquito-borne disease.