In the summer of 1793, an estimated 5,000 residents in Philadelphia were infected with a deadly fever known as Yellow Fever. Philadelphia was in a state of panic. People were afraid, doctors didn't know the cure for Yellow Fever or prevent it. Doctors tried treatments without much success and eventually recommended that people flee the city to save their lives. Many who stayed came down with Yellow Fever and suffered a painful death.
The Facts
A combination of two contributing factors brought Yellow Fever to Philadelphia for the first time in 1793. The first was weather. The spring season of 1793 brought a lot of rain to Philadelphia followed by a hot and dry summer season, which left behind swamps and puddles filled with stagnant water. The wet spring and dry summer created the perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes to multiply and invade the city. The second contributing factor was the immigration of infected refugees. During the summer of 1793, an estimated 1,000 refugees fled from Santo Domingo to Philadelphia. Unknown to the people of Philadelphia, some of the refugees had been infected with and were carrying Yellow Fever. The mosquitoes bit the infected refugees and then bit the people of Philadelphia, transmitting the disease and starting an epidemic.
History
In the summer of 1793, the doctors of Philadelphia gathered together to discuss a common concern over a large amount of patients with the same symptoms. All of the doctors had been seeing patients who exhibited nausea, black vomit, skin eruptions, incontinence, lethargy and yellow skin coloration that led to death in the majority of the patients. The sickness was diagnosed as Yellow Fever. The doctors did not know the cause of the fever or the treatment for it. They had theories of the cause of the fever, but none of them discovered mosquitoes to be the cause of transmission. Unsanitary city conditions and dirty water were thought by some to be the cause. With lack of definitive knowledge of the cause and treatments of the fever, the doctors advised the people to leave the city to avoid infection.
Some doctors stayed behind to treat the infected. Dr. Benjamin Rus, used blood letting as a treatment for Yellow Fever. He would drain up to one-fifth of a patient's blood in an attempt to cure them. Dr. Jean Devèze treated the infected by keeping them comfortable and clean and administered quinine and stimulants. Some patients were saved, but many died.
Time Frame
The year of 1793 was the first but not the only year of Yellow Fever outbreak in Philadelphia. Philadelphia suffered from the Yellow Fever epidemic again in the summers of 1794, 1796, 1797 and 1798. The summer of 1798 brought a severe Yellow Fever epidemic similar to the one in 1793. The other years were much less severe and not as many people died.
Effects
In 1793, Philadelphia was the largest city in the United States with more than 50,000 residents. By the end of the summer of 1793, one-tenth of the population of Philadelphia had died. When the weather cooled off in 1793, some of the Philadelphia residents who had fled returned to their homes believing Philadelphia to be safe again. With each following Yellow Fever outbreak in the following years, the population decreased due to deaths and a large number of residents left in fear. By the end of 1798, the majority of the people of Philadelphia permanently abandoned the city, leaving a population of less than 8,000.
Evolution
In the 1930s, a vaccine was produced to immunize people against the Yellow Fever virus. Yellow Fever is no longer in the United States. It is only found in Africa and South America. Ninety-five percent of people vaccinated against Yellow Fever develop immunity against the virus. Tourists who travel to areas where Yellow Fever exists should get vaccinated and use mosquito repellent to avoid becoming infected.
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