The yellow fever was an infectious virus that took place in the south, particularly Memphis, Tennessee with its most catastrophic case in 1878. The virus was transmitted to people by the bite of an infected mosquito. According to the CDC, “the yellow fever virus is/was found in tropical and subtropical areas in South America and Africa” (CDC, 2015). Overall diagnosing the yellow fever was based on a person’s symptoms and different test. Although there were no guidelines nor general treatment people were still told to use wear protective clothing that would shield their bodies from the harmful mosquitos. “The yellow fever is a Flavivirus that humans served as the Togaviridae and the mosquito’s habitat was particularly in low-light areas in
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Once bitten by an infected mosquito, there is a three to six-day incubation period before symptoms emerge. In mild cases, the resulting fever would have been hard to distinguish from other diseases of the time. In severe cases, however, hemorrhaging can occur, along with “black vomit” and jaundice (Acha and Szyfres 1987)” (S. Wright Kennedy, Andrew J. Curtis & Jacqueline W. Curtis, 2015). Very few people who would survive beyond two weeks would most likely have eternal immunity, but upon getting better, they would have to endure an extensive isolation period were they would be monitored constantly before returning to the general population. “Approximately 30,000 out of 50,000 citizens fled the city of Memphis within two weeks of the first confirmed local case of the disease, and of those who remained, some 19,600 contracted yellow fever; 5,150 of these cases proved fatal” (S. Wright Kennedy, Andrew J. Curtis & Jacqueline W. Curtis, 2015). The yellow fever virus seemed to come from New Orleans according to research and it seemed to come with retribution in 1878, as it was its fourth time then, however its first few times were in 1828, 1855, …show more content…
Memphis was known as the swampy area by the river that was very filthy and smelled really bad. Memphis’ public waste department contributed extremely to the yellow fever epidemic in 1878. Due to open sewers, the toxic smell reeked tremendously causing major reproduction for the mosquitos as they lingered back and forth from the contaminated sewers into open population. Not only was the sewer a major factor that led to the toxic mosquito breeding grounds, but the streets roads also played an important part. Now at this time Memphis had gone on to pave some of their roads, which doing so they used Nicolson pavement. Nicolson pavement is a wood that was mostly used because it was more tangible at the time than other resources. A major con with Nicholson pavement is that it can get very slippery with liquid and also easily rot due to the fact that its wood. The city also suffered from poor sanitation due to not having garbage taken away, which caused the city to be even filthier now adding to the terrible smell making it easy for the circulation of the yellow
Once bitten by an infected mosquito, there is a three to six-day incubation period before symptoms emerge. In mild cases, the resulting fever would have been hard to distinguish from other diseases of the time. In severe cases, however, hemorrhaging can occur, along with “black vomit” and jaundice (Acha and Szyfres 1987)” (S. Wright Kennedy, Andrew J. Curtis & Jacqueline W. Curtis, 2015). Very few people who would survive beyond two weeks would most likely have eternal immunity, but upon getting better, they would have to endure an extensive isolation period were they would be monitored constantly before returning to the general population. “Approximately 30,000 out of 50,000 citizens fled the city of Memphis within two weeks of the first confirmed local case of the disease, and of those who remained, some 19,600 contracted yellow fever; 5,150 of these cases proved fatal” (S. Wright Kennedy, Andrew J. Curtis & Jacqueline W. Curtis, 2015). The yellow fever virus seemed to come from New Orleans according to research and it seemed to come with retribution in 1878, as it was its fourth time then, however its first few times were in 1828, 1855, …show more content…
Memphis was known as the swampy area by the river that was very filthy and smelled really bad. Memphis’ public waste department contributed extremely to the yellow fever epidemic in 1878. Due to open sewers, the toxic smell reeked tremendously causing major reproduction for the mosquitos as they lingered back and forth from the contaminated sewers into open population. Not only was the sewer a major factor that led to the toxic mosquito breeding grounds, but the streets roads also played an important part. Now at this time Memphis had gone on to pave some of their roads, which doing so they used Nicolson pavement. Nicolson pavement is a wood that was mostly used because it was more tangible at the time than other resources. A major con with Nicholson pavement is that it can get very slippery with liquid and also easily rot due to the fact that its wood. The city also suffered from poor sanitation due to not having garbage taken away, which caused the city to be even filthier now adding to the terrible smell making it easy for the circulation of the yellow