SOCIAL EPIDEMICS
- averystevens04
- May 9, 2022
- 0 min read
Yellow Fever
Imagine being bitten by a mosquito, and rather than developing a typical mosquito bite, you begin to notice the yellowing of both your eyes and skin. Would you know what to do in this situation? Unfortunately, people with these symptoms in the early 1700s did not. So, what exactly causes this? Yellow Fever. Named after the jaundice, or the yellowing you experience, it primarily affected people from the 1700s through the early 1900s (The History of Vaccines 1). It is carried by mosquitoes which spread it throughout a population. There were many different theories at the time on how people could cure themselves of this wretched disease, and we will explore them right here.
Yellow Fever originated in Africa and was brought to the Americas in the 1700s through the Atlantic slave trade. Like many common diseases of the area, it is spread by mosquitos. According to the CDC, “symptoms take 3–6 days to develop, and include fever, chills, headache, backache, and muscle aches” (CDC Yellow Fever 1). It is also very well-known for sickness resulting in jaundice or the yellowing of your eyes and skin, from which it derives its name. It is typical for a person to begin recovering after this first phase and either continue to get better or enter a second, more toxic phase. The second phase has been known to have worsening symptoms including affliction of both the liver and kidneys, along with dark urine and black vomit (WHO Yellow Fever 1). People also typically experience bleeding in many areas including the mouth, nose, eyes, and stomach (WHO Yellow Fever 1). Most people that enter the second phase do not survive, dying within the following seven to ten days (WHO Yellow Fever 1). Medical knowledge at the time was extremely limited, so survival rates were incredibly low. Their chances were made even lower sometimes by the “medical practices” used that often did more harm than good. One of the most used methods to combat the spread of Yellow Fever was quarantining. Quarantine derives from the Italian word quaranta which means forty- referring to the number of days suggested to isolate yourself from others. The idea of quarantine came about during the Black Plague and was influenced by its significant death toll, taking one third of the continent's population. Ships arriving from Venice were required to dock for forty days before anything was let off the ship. In the beginning, imposing quarantines fell to the state and local governments, but as the Yellow Fever cases continued to rise Congress passed a federal quarantine legislation in 1878 (History of Quarantine 1). However, by this point, many states had already put travel bans in place for their area to help slow the spread. Quarantine lines were often guarded with shotguns to prevent people from trying to flee into unaffected areas (Nuwer 1). In theory, the idea sounds great, but it was later realized that this disease was spread not through human contact but by mosquitoes. Therefore, making their efforts to control the disease irrelevant.
As Yellow Fever ran rampant throughout cities, people were forced to face the fact that better hygiene and sanitation was necessary. During this time, waste, garbage, and dirty water could be found littering the streets everywhere you looked, creating a breeding ground for disease. “Although the Department of Public Works was responsible for maintaining drainage, the lack of elevation inside the city meant that water had nowhere to go, and workers cleaned the gutters and canals by shoveling muck onto the streets, only to have it wash back during the next rain” (Perkins & Magil 1). Fortunately, cities began developing sewage systems to better handle waste by the 1880s (Perkins & Magil 1). Though the cleaning up of cities and practicing overall better hygiene was something people desperately needed, it was ultimately not what curbed the number of deaths caused by Yellow Fever. People needed to find a way to cut it off at the source. After eventually piecing together that the disease was spread by mosquitoes, scientists were able to research and develop a preventive vaccine. There is no cure for Yellow Fever, but it is possible to stop it before it is ever able to develop. Hideyo Noguchi, a bacteriologist, joined a team in Ecuador to study the disease and was able to identify the pathogen that caused it within nine days (Goldberg 1). He was able to develop a vaccine based on the research he gathered, and in using it, he eliminated Yellow Fever in Ecuador (Goldberg 1). After traveling to Africa in 1927 Noguchi contracted the disease himself and died ten days later (Goldberg 1). It was now up to someone else to help rid the disease from the United States. In 1930, Max Theiler was hired to continue working on and developing a vaccine in New York (Goldberg 1). After a significant amount of research and testing, he was able to successfully develop a vaccine he called 17D (Goldberg 1). By 1941 over four million doses were manufactured and distributed globally (Goldberg 1).
There were many methods that people utilized in an attempt to eradicate Yellow Fever, though some ideas were much more beneficial than others. Based on the limited medical knowledge at the time people did the best they could. Quarantining was the initial idea and one that might have been successful had the disease been spread through contact. However, because Yellow Fever is spread by mosquitoes, quarantining did little to nothing to stop the disease. Practicing better sanitation and hygiene throughout cities was another method used. Though this is something that needed to be done to improve overall health and lower the spread of diseases in general, it did not do a whole lot to lower case numbers. The last method was the development of a vaccine. It took a significant amount of research and testing but eventually, an effective vaccine was developed, decreasing the death toll. There may not be a cure, but having a preventative vaccine lowered case numbers significantly, turning a previously worldwide epidemic into a disease of the past.
Camus and Yellow Fever
Who was Albert Camus and what would he have thought about the yellow fever epidemic? Camus was a French novelist who wrote many different things during his time, often relating back to reoccurring themes that can be applied back to the epidemic. He was born in Algeria in 1913 and died in France during the sixties (Cruickshank 1). Living through both World War One and World War Two may have affected the way that his writing was or maybe it was just because of the way he was raised. Either way, he applied the use of absurd art in many aspects of his literacy work. Such works, namely The Plague go to show that Albert Camus would have wanted to help end the Yellow Fever epidemic in any way he could.
The Plague by Albert Camus was written in 1947 and depicts a world that has been affected by the bubonic plague and many different reactions to it. This has an almost direct line to the topic of yellow fever so it is possible to connect the ideas to each other and understand what Camu’s thoughts on the epidemic may have been. “In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves” (Schillinger 1). A direct quote from The Plague shows that he believed that the common folk were too busy focusing on themselves when they could have worked together to find a solution faster. Not only were the townsfolk blinded by their own problems, but the newspapers were too, “Rats died in the street; men in their homes. And newspapers are concerned only with the street” (Lombardi 1). Had the newspapers worked together to spread information about the oncoming plague the high death counts could have been slowed in both epidemics. This was also partially the medical professionals' fault as they tried to keep it from the public to not worry them too much, “The public mustn’t be alarmed, that wouldn’t do at all” (Schillinger 1). Much like with the Yellow Fever epidemic people were too worried about the things affecting them to notice the issue as a whole. Based on these conclusions Camus would have believed that both the professional and the common folk need to work together in order to end the high death toll of large epidemics.
During both the Bubonic Plague and the Yellow Fever Epidemic people struggled with quarantine. Camus was also able to touch on this subject with his composition The Plague. “A feeling normally as individual as the ache of separation from those one loves suddenly became a feeling in which all shared alike” (Schillinger 1). This quote from The Plague shows that though being apart from loved ones was exceedingly difficult for many families, medical professionals believed that it was one of the best things people could do to stop the spread of the epidemics. He was able to describe how it felt to be separated from loved ones with such detail that you could almost feel the sorrow yourself. “Thus, too, they came to know the incorrigible sorrow of all prisoners and exiles, which is to live in company with a memory that serves no purpose” (Lombardi 1). Being exiled from friends and family is incredibly hard and hurts, even more, when you lose them to the thing you were trying to fight. All anyone could do was hope that things would get better with their efforts and good habits they practiced, “Many continued hoping that the epidemic would soon die out and they and their families be spared. Thus they felt under no obligation to make any change in their habits, as yet. Plague was an unwelcome visitant, bound to take its leave one day as unexpectedly as it had come” (Lombardi 1). Due to his writing, it would be safe to assume that he would have agreed with the methods used to help eradicate the Yellow Fever Epidemic.
Camus had a quite common thread in all his work that can be easily observed, “His writings, which addressed themselves mainly to the isolation of man in an alien universe, the estrangement of the individual from himself, the problem of evil, and the pressing finality of death, accurately reflected the alienation and disillusionment of the postwar intellectual" (Albert Camus 1). By reading The Plague by Albert Camus it is possible to gain some insight into Camu’s opinions on the Bubonic Plague, which took hundreds of lives. When the same opinion structure is applied to the idea of Yellow Fever, it is also possible to piece together what his opinions on it may have been. Knowing that he believed that the public tried to avoid the idea of the world being under the threat of an epidemic by ignoring it, showed that he would have wanted it to have been acknowledged and properly taken care of. This in turn would have lowered the death rates significantly, had the medical professionals and newspapers spread information properly. Though it was tough for many townsfolk one of the best things they could have done was quarantine. By separating from friends and family the spread of the Bubonic Plague would have slowed, which would have been true for Yellow Fever as well. Looking overall at his work, Camus would have wanted the Yellow Fever to be eradicated by any means possible.
Reflection Essay
At the beginning of this year, I came into English 1301 with some skills as far as writing and revising go, but as the year continued, I watched my skills improve immensely. Though I have never really considered myself a great writer, with the help of Mrs. Hammet and my amazing peer reviewers I think that my writing has become something that I can be proud of. Looking back on my work you will often see something similar to “Excellent work the formatting is just a little off” which is a comment left by Mrs. Hammet letting me know how I could have improved what I wrote. This year I learned how to format different types of essays with the assistance of Mrs. Hammet. Something else that I realized this year is that I am very good at researching topics when I want to be. Mrs. Hammet often commented things like “The research is there” or “Great topic and amazing research” which often made me feel really good and pushed me to continue to do better. Overall, this class has helped me in so many ways. There are so many different areas where I feel I have improved a noticeable amount such as sentence structures, proper citations, when to use commas, research skills, and essay formatting. These things together have taken my academic work up a notch to where I can feel proud of what I am writing. For all of this, I can thank Mrs. Hammet as well as the best peer- reviewer I have ever had, Megan Hong, who by the way is never scared to tell me what I need to hear about my writing.
Project 1 Citations
Works Cited
History of Quarantine | Quarantine | CDC. 20 July 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/historyquarantine.html.
In the Late 1800s, Devastating Yellow Fever Epidemics Forced New Orleans to Confront Its Sanitation Problem | The Historic New Orleans Collection. https://www.hnoc.org/publications/first-draft/late-1800s-devastating-yellow-fever-epidemics-forced-new-orleans-confront. Accessed 10 Apr. 2022.
Nuwer, Deanne Love Stephens. “The 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic In Mississippi.” Dissertation Archive, Jan. 1996, https://aquila.usm.edu/theses_dissertations/2360.
“The Long Road to the Yellow Fever Vaccine.” REsource, https://resource.rockarch.org/story/the-long-road-to-the-yellow-fever-vaccine/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.
Timeline | History of Vaccines. https://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline/yellow-fever. Accessed 9 Apr. 2022.
Yellow Fever | Disease Directory | Travelers’ Health | CDC.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/yellow-fever. Accessed 9 Apr. 2022.
Yellow Fever. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/yellow-fever. Accessed 9 Apr. 2022.
Project 2 Citations
Works Cited
“Albert Camus .” NobelPrize.Org, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1957/camus/biographical/. Accessed 10 May 2022.
Cruickshank, John. Albert Camus | Biography, Books, Philosophy, Death, & Facts | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Camus. Accessed 8 May 2022.
Lambordi, Esther. “54 Meaningful, Memorable Quotes From ‘The Plague.’” ThoughtCo, https://www.thoughtco.com/the-plague-quotes-738216. Accessed 10 May 2022.
Schillinger, Liesel. “What We Can Learn (and Should Unlearn) From Albert Camus’s The Plague.” Literary Hub, 13 Mar. 2020, https://lithub.com/what-we-can-learn-and-should-unlearn-from-albert-camuss-the-plague/.
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