Fever 1793
Laurie Halse Anderson
Yellow Fever
• Yellow fever
• Yellow fever is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes.
• Causes, incidence, and risk factors
• Yellow fever is caused by a virus carried by mosquitoes. You can
catch this disease if you are bitten by a mosquito infected with this
virus.
• This disease is common in South America and in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Anyone can get yellow fever, but the elderly have a higher risk of
severe infection.
• If a person is bitten by an infected mosquito, symptoms usually
develop 3 - 6 days later.
• In 1793 it was wrongly believed that it fever was contagious,
meaning you could catch it from an infected individual.
Yellow Fever
• Yellow fever has three stages:
• Stage 1 (infection): Headache, muscle and joint aches,
fever, flushing, loss of appetite, vomiting, and jaundice
are common. Symptoms often go away briefly after
about 3-4 days.
• Stage 2 (remission): Fever and other symptoms go
away. Most people will recover at this stage, but others
may get worse within 24 hours.
• Stage 3 (intoxication): Problems with many organs
occur. This may include heart, liver, and kidney failure,
bleeding disorders, seizures, coma, and delirium.
Yellow Fever
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Symptoms may include:
Irregular heart beats(arrhythmias)
Bleeding (may progress to hemorrhage)
Coma
Delirium
Fever
Headache
Yellow skin and eyes (jaundice)
Muscle aches
Red eyes, face, tongue
Seizures
Vomiting, possibly vomiting blood, called Black Vomit
Philadelphia 1793
• The nation’s capitol at this time
• Philadelphia was one of the largest cities in
the US at the time, and still is today.
• However, the city is much larger today than it
was then. Philadelphia ended at ninth street
to the west, and Cedar(South St.)to the south,
and Mulberry(Race St) to the north
Philadelphia 1793
• George Washington and other prominent
officials left during the epidemic.
• Dr. Benjamin Rush attributed the cause of the
Yellow Fever outbreak to coffee shipments rotting
on the docks. Believed the Fever was contagious.
• Dr. Rush met with some success in treating
Yellow Fever. One of his treatments involved
“bleeding” a patient and having them ingest
mercury.
• Both of these treatments were later discovered
to be more dangerous than helpful.
Philadelphia 1793
• African Americans were enlisted as volunteers to help
the infected.
• It was believed at the time that African American were
immune to Yellow Fever.
• Stephen Girard and Dr. Jean Deveze, disagreed with Dr.
Rush’s treatments and came up with a different
treatment. Deveze became the first leading specialist
in treatment of Yellow Fever.
• Deveze proved that Yellow Fever is not contagious.
• Girard Avenue in Philadelphia is named after Stephen
Girard for his work during the Yellow Fever epidemic.
Review Questions
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Answer each of the following questions on a
separate piece of note book paper
1. What is Yellow Fever?
2. How is Yellow Fever spread?
3. What misinformation, about how Yellow
Fever was spread, was later proven to be
untrue?
4. List the three major symptoms of Yellow
Fever.(hint: They are bolded and italicized.)
5. What distinction did Philadelphia have at
this time?
Review Questions (continued)
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Answer each of the following questions on a
separate piece of note book paper
6. What Famous individual left the city during
the outbreak?
7. Why do you think this person left?
8. Who is Dr. Benjamin Rush and what
accomplishment are attributed to him? (Write
your answer in your own words.)
9. What group of individuals were asked to
assist in helping the sick?
10. Why were they asked?
Review Questions(continued)
Answer each of the following questions on a
separate piece of note book paper
• 11. Which Philadelphian had a street named
after him because of his actions during the
outbreak?
• 12 Who is Dr. Jean Deveze?
• 13. List 2 important facts about him.