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Philadephia , PA 1793. Where is Philadelphia?. What did the city look like in 1793?. Philadelphia. The Revolutionary War lasted from 1776-1783. After the war ended, colonies became states and the US grew quickly.
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Philadelphia • The Revolutionary War lasted from 1776-1783. • After the war ended, colonies became states and the US grew quickly. • Philadelphia was the country’s capital, largest city and it had the busiest port. • Philadelphia became wealthy through trading and ship building.
How did yellow fever arrive? • The spring of 1793 was very wet and left behind swamps and pools of water. • By summer, there were many flies and mosquitoes around the city’s docks. • At the same time, people were arriving from the Caribbean into Philadelphia. • Some of the people from the Caribbean carried the yellow fever virus but weren’t sick because they had immunity to the disease.
How did the disease spread? • Yellow fever spread when a mosquito bit a person from the Caribbean and the same mosquito later bit a Philadelphia resident. • The symptoms of yellow fever are aches, high fever, yellow skin, vomiting and, sometimes, death. • Philadelphia had 50,000 people and 25,000 left to escape the disease. • By the end of the summer, 5,000 citizens of the city had died.
Medicine in the 1700’s • Doctors didn’t know about viruses and didn’t know that insects carried disease • Dr. Benjamin Rush gave patients mercury to make them throw up and he drained their blood. His patients got worse and many did not live. • Dr. Jean Deveze recommended rest, fresh air and lots of fluids. His patients survived at a much higher rate.
What happened afterward? • After the epidemic (quick spread of infectious disease) in Philadelphia, the city set up a health office. • By 1799, Philadelphia set up a quarantine hospital for immigrants at the port. • Fast forward 100 years…. • In 1902, Dr. Walter Reed discovered that mosquitoes spread disease. • In 1930, a yellow fever vaccine was developed but the virus still kills people in parts of Africa and South America.