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Who were fleeing from the city yellow fever?
Among the mass exodus of some 20,000 Philadelphians—nearly half the city's total population at the time—during the yellow fever epidemic were many of the city's doctors, who were terrified of getting ill themselves.
How did they get rid of yellow fever?
The yellow fever epidemic was over. After World War II, the world had DDT in its arsenal of mosquito control measures, and mosquito eradication became the primary method of controlling yellow fever.
How long did yellow fever last in 1793?
Between August and November 1793, yellow fever upended the United States' temporary capital, bringing commerce to a halt, crippling the city's government, and killing over 5,000 of the city's 50,000 inhabitants.
How many people got yellow fever in 1793?
Between August 1 and November 9, 1793, approximately 11,000 people contracted yellow fever in the US capital of Philadelphia. Of that number, 5,000 people, 10 percent of the city's population, died. The disease gets its name from the jaundiced eyes and skin of the victims.
Did anyone survive yellow fever?
Among those who develop jaundice, the fatality rate is 20 to 50%, while the overall fatality rate is about 3 to 7.5%. Severe cases may have a mortality greater than 50%. Surviving the infection provides lifelong immunity, and normally results in no permanent organ damage.
Is yellow fever still around in 2022?
In 2022, two additional countries, Kenya3 and Uganda4, have reported confirmed cases of yellow fever.
Who stopped yellow fever?
Reed's work led General William Gorgas to institute a campaign in Havana against the urban mosquito vector, eliminating the disease in 1902. He accomplished the same task 4 years later in Panama, which allowed the canal to be completed.
Who cured yellow fever?
In 1951, Max Theiler of the Rockefeller Foundation received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of an effective vaccine against yellow fever—a discovery first reported in the JEM 70 years ago. This was the first, and so far the only, Nobel Prize given for the development of a virus vaccine.
What is the death rate of yellow fever?
20% to 50% of infected persons who develop severe disease die. Yellow fever virus is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of infected Aedes or Haemagogus mosquitoes.
What are 5 facts about yellow fever?
Other common... read more spread by mosquitoes.You get yellow fever from being bitten by an infected mosquito.Mosquitoes in tropical areas of central Africa, Central America, and South America carry yellow fever.It causes headache, dizziness, muscle aches, and fever.Sometimes, your skin and eyes turn yellow (jaundice.More items...
When was yellow fever the worst?
The virus affects multiple organ systems and causes internal bleeding; it can be fatal. Yellow fever broke out in Boston in 1693, Philadelphia in 1793 and Norfolk, Virginia in 1855, but the worst American outbreak of yellow fever occurred in the Mississippi River Valley in 1878.
When was the last time someone got yellow fever?
The last major outbreak of yellow fever in the U.S. occurred in 1905 in New Orleans.
How did they treat yellow fever in the 1800s?
Those infected would be given treatments of bloodletting in hopes that the disease would be drained from the body. Although, nothing seemed to work until the city started to clean up its street and improving sanitation methods. The city's efforts managed to erase the standing water areas.
How did the 1793 yellow fever end?
The mortality rate peaked in October before frost finally killed the mosquitoes and brought an end to the outbreak. Doctors tried a variety of treatments but knew neither the origin of the fever nor that the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes (this information was not verified until the late 19th century).
How did the government respond to yellow fever?
The U.S. Mint's response to yellow fever struck a balance between workers' and employers' needs. Workers put on furlough were guaranteed jobs when the public health crisis was over. Meanwhile, the Mint secured their loyalty by promising back pay, so it was able to resume operations quickly after each outbreak.
When was the yellow fever eliminated?
The last major outbreak of yellow fever in the U.S. occurred in 1905 in New Orleans. Today, yellow fever is endemic in tropical and subtropical regions of South America and Africa.
Overview
Epidemic declared
After two weeks and an increasing number of fever cases, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a doctor's apprentice during the city's 1762 yellow fever epidemic, saw the pattern; he recognized that yellow fever had returned. Rush alerted his colleagues and the government that the city faced an epidemic of "highly contagious, as well as mortal... bilious remitting yellow fever." Adding to the alarm was that, unlike wit…
Beginnings
Back in the spring of 1793, French colonial refugees, some with slaves, arrived from Cap Français, Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). The 2,000 immigrants fled the slave revolution in the island's north. They crowded the port of Philadelphia, where the first yellow fever epidemic in the city in 30 years began. It is likely that the refugees and ships carried the yellow fever virus and mosquitoes. Mosquito bites transmit the virus. Mosquitoes easily breed in small amounts of standing water. T…
Black nurses
The College of Physicians' advisory implied the fever was contagious and people should avoid contact with its victims although "duty" required that they be cared for. Yet in families, when the person with the fever was a mother or father, they could forbid their children from coming near them. Rush knew of Dr. John Lining's observation during the 1742 yellow fever epidemic in Charleston, South Carolina, that African slaves appeared to be affected at rates lower than whit…
Controversy over treatment
Given the limited resources and knowledge of the times, the city's response was credible. The medical community did not know the natural history of yellow fever, a viral infection spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Efforts to clean the city did not defeat the spread of the fever, as the mosquitoes breed in clean water as well as in dirty water. Philadelphia's newspapers continued to publish during the epidemic, and the doctors and others tried to understand and combat the epid…
Government responses to crisis
The state legislature cut short its September session after a dead body was found on the steps of State House. Governor Mifflin became ill and was advised by his doctor to leave. The city's banks remained open. But, banking operations were so slowed by the inability of people to pay off notes because of disruptions from the epidemic that banks automatically renewed notes until the epidemic ended.
Reactions by other cities
As the death toll in the city rose, officials in neighboring communities and major port cities such as New York and Baltimore established quarantines for refugees and goods from Philadelphia. New York established a "Committee appointed to prevent the spreading and introduction of infectious diseases in this city", which set up citizen patrols to monitor entry to the city. Stage coaches from Philadelphia were not allowed in many cities. Havre de Grace, Maryland, for example, tried to pr…
Carey's accusations
In his 1793 account of the epidemic, Mathew Carey contrasted the sacrifices of men like Joseph Inskeep, a Quaker who served on the Mayor's Committee and also visited the sick, with the selfishness of others. When Inskeep contracted the fever, he asked for the assistance of a family whom he had attended when several of its members were sick. They refused. He died, which might well have happened even if they had aided him. Carey reported their refusal.
Debate Over Yellow Fever's Causes
The Well-To-Do Exit The City
- Those who had the means to leave the city quickly did so, including Jefferson himself. President George Washington, who returned to his beloved Mount Vernon estate, blamed his exiton the concerns of his wife, Martha. Alexander Hamiltoncontracted yellow fever early in the epidemic, and he and his family left the city for their summer home a few miles away. Hamilton’s wife, Eliz…
Controversial Treatment Methods
- Despite all his efforts, Rush had just a flawed understanding of yellow fever as anyone else at the time. His undeniably harsh treatments—including bloodletting, “Mercurial Sweating Powder,” and forced vomiting—did not curb the spread of the disease, and critics argued it only increased his patients’ suffering. These critics included Hamilton, who took up his pen to spread the word of th…
Philadelphia's Free Black Community Care For The Sick
- "Parents desert their children as soon as they are infected, and in every room you enter you see no person but a solitary black man or woman near the sick,” Rush wrote to his wife, Julia, who was in Princeton, New Jersey, with the couple’s children, during the 1793 epidemic. “Many people thrust their parents into the street as soon as they complain of a headache.” As his letter indicat…