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    Landon Praught Yellow Fever Final

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    The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 ravaged Philadelphia, killing around 5,000 people. The disease caused symptoms like yellow skin and dark vomit. At the time, the cause and transmission of yellow fever were unknown. As the epidemic overwhelmed the city, many residents abandoned infected family members. After it ended, improvements were made in vaccine development and disease control. However, it was not until 1900 that Dr. Walter Reed discovered the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes.

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    Landon Praught Yellow Fever Final

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    76 views3 pages
    The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 ravaged Philadelphia, killing around 5,000 people. The disease caused symptoms like yellow skin and dark vomit. At the time, the cause and transmission of yellow fever were unknown. As the epidemic overwhelmed the city, many residents abandoned infected family members. After it ended, improvements were made in vaccine development and disease control. However, it was not until 1900 that Dr. Walter Reed discovered the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes.

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    The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 ravaged Philadelphia, killing around 5,000 people. The disease caused symptoms like yellow skin and dark vomit. At the time, the cause and transmission of yellow fever were unknown. As the epidemic overwhelmed the city, many residents abandoned infected family members. After it ended, improvements were made in vaccine development and disease control. However, it was not until 1900 that Dr. Walter Reed discovered the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    76 views3 pages

    Landon Praught Yellow Fever Final

    Uploaded by

    api-550930315
    The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 ravaged Philadelphia, killing around 5,000 people. The disease caused symptoms like yellow skin and dark vomit. At the time, the cause and transmission of yellow fever were unknown. As the epidemic overwhelmed the city, many residents abandoned infected family members. After it ended, improvements were made in vaccine development and disease control. However, it was not until 1900 that Dr. Walter Reed discovered the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes.

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    Landon Praught

    Mrs. Houston

    Period ⅞

    2/1/21

    Yellow Fever Epidemic

    The Yellow Fever Epidemic was a very unknown and confusing disease of the 18th

    century. It ravaged the city of Philadelphia during 1793 leading to yellow skin and terrible

    feelling. Once the disease was gone, vaccines were advanced majorly and diseases are controlled

    much better.

    In 1793 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania an outbreak of a deadly disease was rampaging. At

    the time Thomas Jefferson was the states secretary, and he wrote that the disease was called

    Yellow Fever although nothing was known. This got quite a few people nervous to see what

    would happen, but nothing was known. First, it was believed that it was brought to Santo

    Domingo (Now Haiti) on a boat of refugees. The state’s leading physician Dr. Benjamin Rush

    thought that it was caused by bad air quality in the city, so many people thought he was right and

    that it would be an easy fix. That was not the case as the disease went on to ravage through many

    east coast cities and states. (Pruitt)

    The outbreak started in August 1793 and mainly terrorised the city of Philadelphia but

    was not limited to just there. First, some people began to have yellow skin and very dark vomit

    that looked like wet concrete. This led to many people dying and after only a few deaths many

    people began to worry. Many people would kick out any family member who had any symptoms

    from yellow skin to a cough. These people were left by everyone stranded alone to die. Also,

    during the epidemic it was thought that African Americans were immune, which was later
    proved false. Some very well known people at the time had gotten it or were affected such as

    George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton confirmed that he and his wife had the

    fever early on and their kids evacuated to his wife's parents home. George Washington stated he

    left over the worries of his wife which many people did not believe. Through the whole ravage of

    this epidemic not a single vaccine was ever found by the time the epidemic had ended in October

    1793. (“Yellow Fever” [History.com])

    After the epidemic had slowed down and was practically gone, there were many different

    impacts. First, Hundreds of thousands of innocent people were forced to leave family members

    and about 5,000 people died. Families were left lost and dismantled and thousands of people

    were abandoned. Even if they recovered, they would likely never find family. The states got

    major backlash on the lack of work on a vaccine. Dr. Benjamin Rush had a very bad

    understanding of the disease and even worse treatments such as bloodletting (which is a surgery

    to remove blood for theraputic reasons), sweating powder, and forced vomit. This epidemic

    killed about 30,000 and had around 200,000 cases. There is now a vaccine for this disease but if

    you get it there is no medicane to help. Now they do know the in depth smaller symptoms if you

    didn’t get yellow skin our black vomit. Then they found out people can’t spread to people very

    easily so abandoning family was useless. Finally in 1900 Dr. Walter Reed found out that the

    disease was transmitted through mosquitoes. Yellow fever was one of the most easily

    preventable diseases by just controlling mosquito bites and population this would have never

    happened but once it started everyone had a flawed understanding of it so it was nearly

    impossible to stop. Luckily, one brightside is that if you get Yellow fever you are immune for the

    rest of you life for unknown reasons. Now vaccines are worked on much better and quicker by

    people that know enough about the situation. (“Yellow Fever” [School.eb])
    Yellow fever was a disease that made no sense and had well known people ditching cities.

    The epidemic raged on as nobody had any idea on what to do to stop it, leaving thousands of

    people stranded. Scientists have since found a vaccine and what spread the disease across

    Philadelphia.

    Works Cited

    Pruitt, Sarah. "When the Yellow Fever Outbreak of 1793 Sent the Wealthy Fleeing Philadelphia."

    History, A&E Television Networks, 11 June 2020, Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

    www.history.com/news/yellow-fever-outbreak-philadelphia. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

    "Yellow Fever." Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, 24 Oct. 2019,

    school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/yellow-fever/77901. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

    "Yellow Fever." Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA, 15 Jan. 2019,

    www.cdc.gov/yellowfever/index.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

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