Yellow fever epidemics occurred frequently in Pensacola throughout the 19th century. The last epidemic occurred in 1905.
Several factors made control of yellow fever difficult. Prior to the early 1900s, it was not generally understood that yellow fever was transmitted not by person-to-person contact, but by mosquitoes. The first scientific evidence that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes was obtained by Cuban physician and scientist Carlos Finlay in 1881, but his research was not generally accepted until a team lead by Walter Reed reached the same conclusion in 1901.
There was no effective treatment for yellow fever. Even today, treatment in symptomatic and supportive only. The first vaccine was not developed until 1937.
Yellow fever epidemics in Pensacola
Yellow fever epidemics struck Pensacola in the following years. (This list is probably incomplete.)
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References
- Choppin, Samuel. "History of the The Importation of Yellow Fever Into the United States From, 1693 to 1878." Public Health Reports and Papers, Volume IV: 190-206, American Public Health Association. Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1880.