Epidemics

Yellow Fever

Yellow fever is a disease that is caused by a virus that spreads through mosquito bites. Most symptoms take three to six days to develop and the normally include fever, chills, headache, and muscle aches. Most people who end up getting yellow fever develop serious illness which can lead to organ failure, and sometimes death.

Introducing Yellow Fever to New Orleans 

As many people know New Orleans is an extremely swamp area. Swamps contract mosquitoes, and yellow fever is due to mosquitoes. Many people think that New Orleans is haunted by ghosts, vampires, and the swamps that killed ten percent of the city's population between July and October. Due to some many deaths in New Orleans it earned the nickname "Necropolis" which is known as the city of the dead. In the 19th century, New Orleans and other Southern cities due to all the swamps were considered the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes as well as for Yellow Fever to be extremely frequent. New Orleans has always had problems with having clean drinking water. Many people residing in New Orleans would have to relied on massive wood or iron cylinders to collect rainwater in order for them and their families to have clean water. This was a problem though because mosquitoes are attracted to standing water and they would lay their eggs in the stagnant water. It was also a problem because the yore in the swamps as well so they were contracting double the number of mosquitoes that they should have been. When families would drink the water, they thought was "clean" it was already infested with mosquitos eggs and it caused them to quickly get Yellow Fever.  

Source:

https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2019/01/28/how-yellow-fever-shaped-19th-century-new-orleans-a-qa/

It wasn't until the 1900 that researchers discovered the cause of yellow fever. Yellow fever attacks in New Orleans occurred with less frequency after the Civil War. During the Spanish American War, the United States sent a doctor to study the cause and effects of Yellow Fever. Infirmaries were another big thing with the yellow fever. An infirmary is a place in a large institution for the care of those who are ill. Not all the infirmaries during the time of the Yellow Fever were used as hospitals. They were used for houses, apartments, or really any place where they could put infected living bodies to try and care for them and make their symptoms more manageable. An infirmary in this time of day would be consider palliative or hospice care. Since palliative/hospice care is to help the dying manage their symptoms and keep them conformable as they pass away with family and friend around them. The last major epidemic of Yellow fever we have had in the United States was in 1905 in New Orleans. 

Pharmaceutical

Due to having all the complication with the mosquitoes in New Orleans the city and the government tried to do everything in their power to get rid of them. The city also tried to do everything they could to help protect the community but nothing was working. Miasma is defined as an highly unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor. In the eighteen and nineteenth century people starting believing at first that there isn't something physical in the air by they knew the air was infected by karma or a bad funk. Miasma came from a Greek term which was why travelers who came to New Orleans were dying because they always died, and people thought that they had a bad funk or karma. As time progress they realized that it was physical infection. They realized this by one method they tried doing. Burning tar, which was supposed to help purify the air. The government also ordered the city's cannons to be fired. Firing the cannons was to protrude vibrations and shake the disease out of the air. They would also have the city's fog trucks drive slowly down the streets on New Orleans spraying pesticides into the air to kill the mosquitoes and their eggs. In the pharmacy tour that we were given, our tour guide told us that the medicine that they were given wasn't really helping that all it did was make them have another illness to distract them from their current one they had. For example, is someone came in with a hurt elbow they would be given topical which would make there arm blister and red and this would cause them to get rid of the elbow pain but them focus on the blistering and the redness where they would have applied the cream at. In the 19th century there wasn't a lot of control over the pills and the dosage amount in each pill. The pills back in the 19th century was cut my hand, and mix in a mortar and pistol bowl. In each pill the dosage amount could be different as well as easy pill could contained a high amount of Mercury or Iron. As medicine went on they eventually got a pill cutter so all the pills were the same, but the dosage amount was still not correct. It wasn't always the pills and the dosages that cause people to get sicker it was also the needles. Back then the needles were not being cleaned, and everyone was using the same needles until the needles broke. This is another big reason of why people were getting all of these diseases because they are spreading infectious disease by not changing the needles for every person that walked through the door. Mosquitoes as many people know to are contracted to hot smell places. Many people in the city of New Orleans would throw their garbage on the streets, and it would not only contract mosquitoes but other rodents as well.

photos from me

What was culturally lost/gained

Yellow Fever wiped a lot out of New Orleans when the epidemic was in place. One thing that a lot of people do not realize including myself was how much of the diversity is lost in the population and cultures. Diversity was lost because so much of the culture was lost and the people that were there died, and the original New Orleanians were no longer there, and new settlers would come in and take over but they would eventually die as well due to the heroic Yellow Fever that no one could figure out how to cure. Another thing that was lost culturally due to Yellow Fever was historical houses. Many historical houses were lost during this time because they were used as infirmaries for the dead bodies, and them were also used a temporary hospitals to try and cure these patients and get rid of as many symptoms as possible. Diversity and historical houses were the biggest thing in the Yellow Fever epidemic that was lost, but there are two major things that were gained as well. Cemeteries and pharmaceutical were a big hit back in this epidemic. Cemeteries were a gained because they had to make the cemeteries bigger to house all the dead people that were dying from Yellow Fever as well as put as many people in a grave as possible so they weren't able to expand anymore. Pharmaceutical was another major thing that was a gain during Yellow Fever because as people were gettin Yellow Fever they would be going to the Pharmacist trying to get medications to cure it, but what they did not know was that they were just getting another disease on top of it. Many of the people who did die of Yellow Fever most likely also died from other things in the 18 and 1900's. Sterilizing was a big thing that they did NOT do back then. It was just not Yellow Fever that contributed to them dying the lack of cleanliness they had also played an important role with the death of all the people.  Thought out this process of everything that was culturally lost and gained the community still never gave up on their faith, and they still believed that God was watching over them and nothing was going to break them from their faith with God.