User:Orcandiver/History of yellow fever

Peer Reviewed by Ebs5kp (talk) 16:46, 23 October 2020 (UTC)
1.	What does the article do well?

It is interesting that the Federal government assumed control of quarantining measures! I also thought it intriguing that around 25,000 of the Memphis residents fled the city. The point expressed later in the article about infected people seeking medical help from hospitals even though the main treatment suggested retreating to the country is also interesting and sounds somewhat relevant to today.

2.	Suggestions for improvement?

I would suggest some grammar edits, there are a few run-on sentences that could be clearer if split into two sentences. Also, I would suggest using the term “the African-American population” instead of “blacks” in this sentence: “There were at least 11,000 cases among 14,000 blacks, resulting in 946 deaths.”

3.	Most important improvement?

I would emphasize grammatical errors (specifically run-on sentences and sentence structure errors). I think that the critical parts of ensuring your contributions are effective are twofold: finding reliable and factually accurate information (which you have obviously done quite well) and communicating this information clearly.

4.	What in this article is useful for your own article?

Adding details on the effect that a disease had on the population (such as people fleeing cities in mass) is an excellent idea. If this type of information is available about the Sweating Sickness epidemics (my personal article) in London, I’ll certainly be adding it!

Response to Ebs5kp
Thanks for the response! I agree with the grammar edits. I’m not going to lie, I purposely had run-on sentences to reduce how many times I had to cite the same source, but if making shorter sentences with improved grammar and more citations is what it takes to get the information across clearly and concisely then I’ll make those changes. With that said, I will not change the term used in the quote to “African-American population.” I believe changing a quote to put my own label onto a people of color is both irresponsible and inconsiderate. I do not know if the people of color of the time held views that agreed with the term “African-American,” and I will not put labels on them declaring them as such. I agree that simply referring to people of color at the time as “blacks” is offensive, however I also believe that it is important to not censor the racial prejudices of the time simply because it makes us uncomfortable because it takes away from the injustices that people of color went through throughout history. To conclude, I will make the necessary grammatical and structural changes to improve the flow of the information to be more clear, but I will not make changes to direct quotes from my sources. LysolAllPurposeCleaner (talk) 16:48, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Lower Mississippi Valley: 1878
The entire Mississippi River Valley from St. Louis south was affected, and tens of thousands fled the stricken cities of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Memphis. An estimated 120,000 cases of yellow fever resulted in some 20,000 deaths.[26]

It is unknown what exactly led to the outbreak in the Mississippi River Valley as causes range from unchecked vessels from the fruit trade to refugees from the Ten Years' War in Cuba, which was experiencing a rise in yellow fever cases, however, investigations at the time suggest that the epidemic originated from the steamer Emily B. Souder on May 22, 1878.[27]

Memphis suffered several epidemics during the 1870s, culminating in the 1878 epidemic (called the Saffron Scourge of 1878), with more than 5,000 fatalities in the city. Some contemporary accounts said that commercial interests had prevented the rapid reporting of the outbreak of the epidemic, increasing the total number of deaths. People still did not understand how the disease developed or was transmitted, and did not know how to prevent it.[28]

The 1878 epidemic was the worst that occurred in the state of Mississippi. Sometimes known as "Yellow Jack", and "Bronze John", devastated Mississippi socially and economically. Entire families were killed, while others fled their homes for the presumed safety of other parts of the state. Quarantine regulations, passed to prevent the spread of the disease, brought trade to a stop. Some local economies never recovered. Beechland, near Vicksburg, became a ghost town because of the epidemic. By the end of the year, 3,227 people had died from the disease.[29]

'''Above is the original article. Below is my edited version of the Lower Mississippi Valley: 1878 Section of the article. Words and edits that I personally made will be in bold. Please note that this is not done yet.'''

Events Leading Up to the Epidemic
During the Civil War, New Orleans was occupied with Union troops, and the local populace believed that yellow fever would only kill the northern troops. These rumors instilled fear into the Union troops, and they actively practiced sanitation and quarantine procedures during their occupation in 1862 until the government pulled federal troops out of the city in 1877, resulting in relaxing sanitation and quarantine efforts in New Orleans. '''Following the yellow fever epidemic in Shreveport, Louisiana, where 769 people died between August and November, the states in the Lower Mississippi Valley began to take precautions for any following epidemics. After the epidemic, the Quarantine Act of 1878 was passed that allowed the United States federal government to assume control over the state in quarantines, but the law did not allow for the federal government to intercede on local medical authorities or health boards. In March of that year, a virulent strain of Yellow Fever was found in Havana, Cuba, and New Orleans health officials ordered the detainment of all vessels from the Cuban and Brazilian regions.  It is unknown what exactly led to the outbreak in the Mississippi River Valley as causes range from unchecked vessels from the fruit trade to refugees from the Ten Years' War in Cuba, which was experiencing a rise in yellow fever cases, however, investigations at the time suggest that the epidemic originated from the steamer Emily B. Souder on May 22, 1878. ''' LysolAllPurposeCleaner (talk) 14:42, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Overall Section of the Epidemic (General things about region)
The entire Mississippi River Valley from St. Louis south was affected, and tens of thousands fled the stricken cities of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Memphis. '''The epidemic in the Lower Mississippi Valley also greatly affected trade in the region, with orders of steamboats to be tied up in order to reduce the amount of travel along the Mississippi River, railroad lines were halted, and all the workers laid off.  Carrigan states that "An estimated 15,000 heads of households were unemployed in New Orleans, 8,000 in Memphis, and several thousands more in scattered small towns - representing a total of over 100,000 persons in dire need." ''' LysolAllPurposeCleaner (talk) 14:42, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

New Orleans
When the epidemic broke out from the Emily B. Souder in May, roughly 40,000 residents that represent 20% of the city population fled the city, many of whom fled via the new railroads systems constructed during the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War, which further spread the virus across the Lower Mississippi Valley. The city saw roughly 20,000 total infections during the epidemic with 5,000 resulting in deaths, and saw a loss of more than $15 million due to the disruptions in trade from the epidemic.

Due to the struggles of the remaining citizens, numerous organizations formed relief committees that relied heavily on aid from the federal government in the form of relief rations and money donations from unaffected cities in the North. The federal relief came with heavy restrictions, as they were only allowed to be given to households that had yellow fever and could provide proof via a doctor's certificate or given to people considered "destitute." These restrictions led to many citizens having to go without federal aid, resulting in roughly 10,000 people receiving aid despite there being 20,000 cases of yellow fever alone.

Memphis
Memphis suffered several epidemics during the 1870s, culminating in the 1878 epidemic (called the Saffron Scourge of 1878), with more than 5,000 fatalities in the city. Some contemporary accounts said that commercial interests had prevented the rapid reporting of the outbreak of the epidemic, increasing the total number of deaths. People still did not understand how the disease developed or was transmitted, and did not know how to prevent it. The news of deaths in New Orleans and in the nearby town of Hickman in August led to the mass withdrawal of an estimated 25,000 residents from the city of Memphis within four days, which led to further the spread of the virus across the Lower Mississippi Valley. Memphis also saw an economic crisis during the epidemic, where trade was halted entirely in the city, and the lack of commerce led to mass starvations throughout the city, inciting riots and looting. All in all, Ellis states that " of the approximately 20,000 persons remaining in the city, an estimated 17,000 contracted the fever, of whom 5,150 died. There were at least 11,000 cases among 14,000 blacks, resulting in 946 deaths. By contrast, virtually all of the 6,000 whites were stricken, and 4,204 cases proved fatal. The disaster's economic cost tot he city was later calculated to be upward of fifteen million dollars." LysolAllPurposeCleaner (talk) 14:42, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Mississippi
The 1878 epidemic was the worst that occurred in the state of Mississippi. Sometimes known as "Yellow Jack", and "Bronze John", devastated Mississippi socially and economically. Entire families were killed, while others fled their homes for the presumed safety of other parts of the state. Quarantine regulations, passed to prevent the spread of the disease, brought trade to a stop. Some local economies never recovered. Beechland, near Vicksburg, became a ghost town because of the epidemic. By the end of the year, 3,227 people had died from the disease.

Aftermath
'The epidemic lasted until late October when lower temperatures drove off the A. Aegypti'' mosquitoes, the primary carrier of yellow fever, away or into hibernation, and it was not until November 19 when the epidemic was officially declared to be over.  Ellis states that "according to estimates, there were around 120,000 cases of yellow fever and approximately 20,000 deaths." ''' The Lower Mississippi Valley also experienced roughly $30 million in economic losses due to the disruption of commerce caused by the epidemic. LysolAllPurposeCleaner (talk) 14:42, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Philadelphia 1793-1805
At the time, the known solution to recovery was found to be long and tedious as it was expected that patients needed to consume bitters and country air away from the metropolitan area, in order to recover. Yet the average citizen typically sought medical help from the Pennsylvania Hospital. Year after year starting in 1793, yellow fever returned to major cities along the east coast including Philadelphia leaving investigators stagnant in regard to progress made in the search for the cause of yellow fever. Making it's first appearance in Philadelphia in late July, yellow fever spread so quickly that within the span of three months the disease had killed around 10% of the population. Yellow Fever's prevalence during this era killed over 10,000 people starting in 1793 where nearly 5,000 people died, striking again in 1797 tallying about 1,500 people, and again the next year in 1798 killing 3,645 people.

Potential Causes
With the spread of yellow fever in 1793, physicians of the time used the increase number of patients to increase the knowledge in disease as the spread of yellow fever, helping differentiate between other prevalent diseases during the time period as cholera, and typhus were current epidemics of the time as well. As doctors and people of interest investigated the cause of yellow fever, two main hypothesis derived from the confusing data they collected. The first being the disease is contagious, as the disease is spread through the contact of people, as ships from the already infected Caribbean Islands had spread to major cities. The second hypothesis being that the disease derived from local sources proposing that contact with them caused the sickness rather than the spreading be with people as yellow fever seemed to be prevalent in major cities and less effective in rural areas.

Orcandiver (talk) 16:26, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Peer Review by Alczdx
I focused mainly on the Lower Mississippi Valley section of your article.

I really enjoyed reviewing your article edits! The organization was clean and easy to read!


 * 1) I really like how you included the individual major cities in the Lower Mississippi Valley, it makes the article much easier to read through. In the section about Memphis, the transition from the original text to your edited text doesn’t flow; the information in the paragraph doesn’t match up exactly. Starting a new paragraph under the Memphis headline may help with the flow of the information. In the Memphis paragraph as well, the added material all comes from the same source. Adding a different or new source to that article may help broaden the information.
 * 2) I’ve noticed that Ellis is a big source for a lot of the information. I think it would make a big difference if you had two or three major sources that you pull from, that way any bias from the sources can be avoided or countered.
 * 3) I really liked the mention of the mosquitoes in the aftermath section of the Lower Mississippi Valley section! Were there any sources you found that talked about the returning of people to the areas that were affected? I think adding in information about the recovery of the towns could add a lot to your article.

Response to Alczdx
Thanks for the response! I had been planning on improving the shift from the original article to my own, especially when it comes to the Memphis section. I will definitely consider adding another paragraph to the Memphis section, especially since there is so much to talk about since that city was hit the hardest. My sources have been pertaining mostly to the New Orleans area, so I’ll try to find more information about Memphis specifically to add some variety to the information available. Some of my sources did say that many areas did not recover from the epidemic and essentially became ghost towns. There is plenty of information about the aid sent from the northern states and the governmental assistance given to the region, so I’ll definitely add that to the “Aftermath” section of the article. LysolAllPurposeCleaner (talk) 16:48, 30 October 2020 (UTC)