Introduction to yellow fever  (Page 2/2)

Isolated patient

Quarantines were very common during this time, which along with improved sewage and drainage facilities, helped keep the disease controlled.  A simple rumor of the presence of the disease caused massive blockades against the infected city.  Quarantine laws were also passed to prevent ships carrying infected persons or people coming from cities which had an outbreak from landing in ports that were not infected.  Congress created the National Board of Health in 1879 to establish a national quarantine system.

Isolated patient

Outbreaks

The disease was especially prominent in port cities starting as early as the 1690s.  It struck at ports from Boston all the way to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.  Philadelphia, New York, Galveston, and Brownsville were some of the cities that were often times affected due to the appearance of mosquitoes in those areas.  The disease usually destroyed between 5 to 10 percent of the population of cities which suffered from outbreaks, but this statistic increased to up to 20% mortality rate during major outbreaks.

Letter to surgeon-general in washington, d.c.

During the 1850s, a series of epidemics struck every city along the cost from Norfolk, Virginia all the way down to Brownsville, Texas. New Orleans, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville were some of the North American cities that were affected by yellow fever epidemics.  During the 1853 New Orleans epidemic, more than 3,000 cases occurred.  It lasted four months and resulted in about 1800 deaths. During this decade, New Orleans lost almost 20,000 people due to four difference epidemic outbreaks.  Following that time period, the incidences decreased until the reappearance of one final outbreak in 1905 in New Orleans.  This was the last major outbreak, which was successfully terminated with the help of effective mosquito control (Duffy 688).

Major outbreaks in the u.s.

Further reading

Sources

VanItallie, Theodore B. “Yellow Fever, the Doctors, and their Victims in the 19 ^th Century South.” Florida Historical Quaterly (1995) 74: 329-33. Web. 11 Mar. 2010.