Yellow fever
Yellow fever epidemics occurred frequently in Pensacola throughout the 19th century. The last epidemic occurred in 1905.
Despite the heroic efforts of Pensacola physicians who risked and sometimes lost their lives treating yellow fever, 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[1]. (This list is probably incomplete.)
Here are a few excerpts from eyewitness accounts of the epidemic of 1822[2].
"A terrible epidemic has visited Pensacola... About a hundred and fifty have, in twenty days, been consigned to the tomb, and as many as eighteen have fallen in a single day. Never, perhaps, was a fever more universally fatal, utterly defying the aid of medicine; no instance of a recovery after an attack, has occurred."
"It is impossible to give you an idea of the extent of the calamity which has befallen Pensacola; out of a population of fourteen hundred, which it was said to contain when we arrived, short of four hundred now remain; the rest have either died or made their escape. We are the only American family that remains alive in the place, and there are but very few other Americans here... All our authorities have either died or deserted... You may cast your eyes for hours every day round and not see an individual moving, save the hardened carman with his heavy loaded hearse."
This epidemic was introduced by a patient from New Orleans. He and several physicians attending him all died. Members of the family where he was sick also contracted the disease[1].
The epidemic of 1867 struck despite efforts to quarantine ships upon their arrival in Pensacola.[3]
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 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.
- ↑ "1822 Yellow Fever" http://genealogytrails.com/fla/escambia/epidemic_1822.html
- ↑ Brackett, John Matthew. "'The Naples of America,' Pensacola during the Civil War and Reconstruction". Master of Arts thesis, Florida State University
