Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic Analysis

While reading An American Plague, I noticed an interesting detail that Yellow Fever could actually be prevented. Murphy (2003) notes that doctors noted the symptoms of the sick patients from the disease Yellow Fever. Some of the symptoms were pain in the back and painful aching in the body. This detail led me to wonder if there was a way that you could prevent Yellow fever. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that wearing bug repellent will reduce the chances for getting bit by a mosquito and they also talk about having more clothing on your body will also help because then mosquito's can not bite you. The article also talks about vaccines because we know have a yellow fever vaccine and that will cure yellow fever.

In this chapter it talks about how Catherine LeMaigre was dying, and dying horribly and painfully. The two physicians sent for their esteemed colleague Dr. Benjamin Rush. They were trying to find out if they could stop the plague from spreading.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, as the country grew and trade flourished, periodic epidemics struck regions of the nation as population density increased. Outbreaks of influenza, cholera took over the nation, and in the south, one of the most prevalent was yellow fever. Due to these diseases, a lot of public health policies were either created or changed to better suit the new issues arising. In this essay, I will argue that the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 brought upon many changes in the health realm in terms of public sanitation. In order to prove the epidemic s place in the history of health policies, I will be discussing the creation of the new sewer system, waste disposal techniques, and other projects created.

It is a fact that we have a longer life expectancy than ever before. This has been achieved through years of thorough research, technological development, and most importantly resilient individuals. Doctors are constantly faced with different enigmas with no right or wrong answer. What first attracted me toward medicine was the desire to help and support, in particular, disadvantaged people. Coming from a country with an underdeveloped health care system has made me realised the impact it has on people’s life.

As a person ages, theirs body cannot perform the way it used to. This will cause many elderly people to loose their job or choose to go into retirement. Both of these options cause a loss in health care as well and a reduced or exterminated income. Here alone lies a reason that the elderly population is challenged. The elderly population also has a tendency to develop a chronic illness that can be life threatening if not treated or controlled properly. This means that need for health care treatments also increases. At least 40% of those over age 65 will have nutrition-related health problems requiring treatment or management (Gigante, 2012). It is important to realize that 10% of people over the age of 65 and will develop Alzheimer’s disease and 50% of those over the age of 85 will develop this disease (Gigante, 2012). More elderly African American men and women use government aid than white men and women. Therefore, this population will be vulnerable because of the lack of funding, proper health care and insurance.

Throughout history many different diseases have infected the world. Such diseases consist of measles, mumps, malaria, typhus and yellow fever. Many of these diseases are caused by different things and originated in different countries.

Yellow Fever blew through Philadelphia like a huge tornado storm, killing people one by one as it goes by in summer 1793. Over 5000 were killed by this deadly disease that many know as Yellow Fever. Many might be wondering how this disease came to be what it is today. It forms by one little mosquito bite on your body that injects the “poison” like substance. These mosquitos came from the forgein ships that came to Philadelphia in 1793.The “treatment” that they believe in to cure this fever was pretty odd.

Philadelphia 1793, Philadelphia was one of the most most populated places in the world with 50,000 people in it. Philadelphia started having issues like yellow fever until fever victims started showing results of what happens when you get the sickness, soon people left the cities to be close to how many people left it was approximately 20,000 people. With people leaving faster and faster per day since people were dying, people got scared I would to, since at the end of the day over 5,000 people died.

224 years ago, in 1793, a yellow fever epidemic roared over Philadelphia. This was a devastating time for all Philadelphians. Although there were no cures, there were treatments. There were two types of doctors back in this time; the French doctors and the American. Mosquitos are the cause of this. They (the mosquitos) got infected by the refuges. The mosquitos spread the yellow fever to mankind. This epidemic killed a couple thousand people.

Imagine yourself sick and no cure in 1793 in Philadelphia your dead or someone else is dead. If I lived during 1793 in Philadelphia the struggles would include disease, survival, death. To begin, the whole book is about yellow fever and yellow fever is a disease. For example the story initially starts in the second chapter, Polly one of Matilda's friend dies from a fever but they do not know what fever. What this means is that the fever is barely starting in Philadelphia. Additionally, it has seemed that survival was very important and very hard in Philadelphia. On page 24 in the first sentence it had said how many people have died already “A week later sixty-four people had died.” This explains that the fever was going very quickly and you

Yellow Fever was like a massive fire burning through Philadelphia killing thousands and thousands of people! It was also like a lightning bolt which struck the earth as hard as a runaway train. If you did not know, Yellow Fever is a horrific disease which comes from certain diseased, or infected mosquitoes. The Philadelphian and French doctors had to come up with a solution, or clarification. They both came up with a cure that they thought would be able to help people with the illness. This certain event happened in the summer of 1793 in Philadelphia. The mosquitoes came from some ships that sailed over seas into Philadelphia ports . There was between 2000-5000 people dead. It almost feels like 10,000 were dead! Yellow Fever still exist

1793: the yellow fever has taken over Philadelphia like butterflies migrating. I am a first year physician to volunteer to help fever victims. I, the physician, am doing this so I can report back to to King George the III. There were over a 1,000 people that died of yellow fever in Philadelphia. That is most of the population in Philadelphia. So I am going to study these two methods (the two methods are the American method and the French method.)

Survival of the Sickest is a fascinating book that explores why we need disease and how different diseases have evolved from the beginning of time. Author, Dr. Sharon Moalem goes beyond the surface and answers many questions about evolution and disease for example, “Was diabetes evolution’s response to the last Ice Age?” and many others. Dr. Moalem shares how many of the diseases that we call harmful today have actually proven to be beneficial to survival for our ancestors. This book shows how every single thing that our ancestors have done in the past from the environment they lived in to the food they ate can be seen in our genetic code. Survival of the Sickest does not solely focus on the history of disease and evolution, it shows the reader

The barriers to receiving effective public health treatment are nothing short of intimidating. Many people in the United States could die if they do not receive adequate public health that take care of their diseases. The government need to create available programs to deal with the increase of diseases and with the aging U.S. population. Invasive and debatable actions sometimes are needed it to find the causes of some diseases.

Diseases are often associated with a negative connotation. We blame disease for the death of our loved ones, depression in families, financial issues due to hospital bills. But what if we seek beyond the consequences it brings us but instead notice the benefits? The new information we were able to gather based on the human body was by researching the illness. Survival of the Sickest, written by Dr. Sharon Moalem describes a number of illnesses and how it has altered our perspectives on these illnesses. Diabetes, Hemochromatosis, and Dracunculiasis are all maladies scientists have discovered facts that not only learn more about those particular diseases but also other illnesses and the human biology.