7th Grade Research 2014

High fever Fatigue Headache Backache A rash with flat red sores

caused by the variola virus. For centuries, epidemics of smallpox affected people all over the globe, and the disease was often serious. But in 1796, an English doctor named Edward Jenner discovered a way to protect people from getting smallpox, and his experiments eventually led to the development of the first smallpox vaccine.

Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and even death if untreated. It is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae.

cholera outbreaks are still a serious problem in other parts of the world, where cholera affects an estimated 3 to 5 million people and causes more than 100,000 deaths each year.

're not kee

from what was once called the Black Death. Although we

The United States is one of the many countries around the world that technically still suffers from what was once called the Black Death

No one would ever know precisely how many Philadelphians died of yellow fever in 1793. What was clear to all was that life would never be the same. Changes also came to the city because of the fever. Efforts were made to keep the markets and streets free of offensive-smelling matter, and the laws holding homeowners responsible for cleaning up their property were strengthened. The biggest improvement was made in the way water was supplied to Philadelphia. Water from the system – the first water system in the United States – was sweeter tasting and had no offensive odor. Plus the water flowed with enough force to hose streets and docks clean and to flush open clogged sewers. Eliminating the backbreaking need to hand-pump every drop of water had another beneficial effect as well. People began to bathe more often. Everyone – even those who had run from the city – considered himself or herself a survivor. They were a people left scarred, emotionally and physically. Sudden, mass death had stricken their city, and they were no wiser at all about the nature of the killer. They knew only one thing for certain: when next summer’s hot, humid weather returned, yellow fever might very well visit their homes again.

Yellow fever and the yellowfever mosquito are thought to have originated in Africa. It was brought to the New World on slave ships in the 1500s. Yellow fever ravaged Europeans in the New World. Buckley (1985) stated, "The West Indies was, quite simply, a deathtrap for whites without immunity to yellow fever." The British were repeatedly stung by the disease in the Caribbean and South America. In 1741, during an expedition to capture Peru and Mexico, British forces were reduced from 27,000 to 7,000 by the dreaded disease they called "black vomit." Coastal towns and hamlets in the United States were particularly vulnerable to the disease in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even as late as 1878, a yellow fever epidemic struck more than 100 United States towns, killing at least 20,000 people.

Several mild problems have been reported within 2 weeks of getting the vaccine: headaches, upper respiratory tract infection (about 1 person in 3) stuffy nose, sore throat, joint pain (about 1 person in 6) abdominal pain, cough, nausea (about 1 person in 7) diarrhea (about 1 person in 10) fever (about 1 person in 100)

Sylvatic yellow fever (also known as “jungle yellow fever”) occurs when the disease is passed from monkeys infected by wild mosquitoes to humans. Intermediate yellow fever—the most common type of outbreak in modern Africa—results when semi-domestic mosquitoes (which can infect both monkeys and humans) are present in an area where they commonly come into contact with humans. Urban yellow fever occurs when the Aedes aegypti species of domestic mosquito transmits the virus between humans, without transmission via other primates.

Symptoms The majority of persons infected with yellow fever virus have no illness or only mild illness. In persons who develop symptoms, the incubation period (time from infection until illness) is typically 3–6 days. The initial symptoms include sudden onset of fever, chills, severe headache, back pain, general body aches, nausea, and vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. Most persons improve after the initial presentation. After a brief remission of hours to a day, roughly 15% of cases progress to develop a more severe form of the disease. The severe form is characterized by high fever, jaundice, bleeding, and eventually shock and failure of multiple organs.

In army camps and cantonments, in hospitals, and in streets and workplaces across the nation, photographers aimed their lenses and captured a nation struggling to deal with the crisis.

In the fall of 1918, against the tragic backdrop of war and disease,

That said, even a small sample of America and Americans in the midst of the great influenza pandemic of 1918 is a powerful message indeed.

The symptoms of the Black Death were gruesome: Tumors covered the body -- some of them as big as an egg or apple, Boccaccio wrote. A large neck tumor might permanently cock a person's head in the opposite direction. Purplish splotches also covered the body. These were nicknamed "God's tokens," because God usually took the sufferer soon after they appeared. The sick even smelled like they were going to die. Bad breath and odors indicated they were rotting from the inside.