User:Ryangrady8/1847 North American typhus epidemic

The North American typhus epidemic of 1847 was an outburst of epidemic typhus caused by a mass Irish emigration in 1847 during the Great Famine, making the passage in "coffin ships," which were overcrowded and overrun by disease.

Canada
In Canada, over 20,000 people died from 1847 to 1848, with many quarantined on the coffin ships as well as fever sheds in Grosse Isle, Montreal, Toronto, Saint John, Ottawa, and Kingston.

Grosse Isle
The biggest hub for this disease was in Quebec at Grosse Isle. An island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Grosse Isle had set up a quarantine station to contain a cholera outbreak in 1832, home to thousands of Irish emigrants from around 1832 to 1848.

In 1847, when the influx of diseased ships came to the island there was suddenly thousands of diseased emigrants there and the island was quickly overwhelmed. The conditions had gotten so bad that the diseased had to stay on their ships for days or weeks on end. There were around 90,000 people who came down with typhus either at Grosse Isle or on their ships on the way to Grosse Isle, of the 90,000 almost 16,000 died as a result of typhus, some dying before the ships reached their destination. With such overcrowded and cramped conditions at the quarantine station at Grosse Isle makeshift huts were built along the water out of anything available. These shacks were called "immigrant sheds" and were far from glamorous, they had no ventilation and often couldn't get any drinking water into those in the sheds. The sheds were filled with the sick who couldn't move and laid in their own feces and urine for days on end, only worsening their conditions. There were hardly any staff and they had to bring in prisoners to care for the sick. Unfortunately, this did not quite work as planned as the prisoners had free reign to steal from the sick or dead.

Montreal
In Montreal about 5,000 people died in what was known as fever sheds. These sheds were 150 ft long and 50 ft wide and were stuffed with thousands of the sick all laying on top of each other. Fever sheds were not designed as a long term solution, so there was little thought into ventilation or air ducts, which led to a very dangerous conditions that those in the fever sheds were left to face. The residents of Montreal actually hated the fever sheds and wanted them gone so badly that they ended up rioting and threatening to break the fever sheds and down and throw them into the river, the riot was eventually calmed down and the sheds did remain. The people who died in Montreal are now memorialized at The Black Rock.

Toronto
Toronto had smaller fever sheds than those of Montreal but the design and purpose was very similar except in Toronto the fever sheds that got erected were 70 by 25 ft so roughly half the size of those in Montreal. It isn't well known which was more effective at curbing the disease as the outbreak appeared to be less severe in Toronto. Still, 863 irish immigrants passed away due to the disease in Toronto. including Toronto's first Bishop, Michael Power.

Partridge Island & Saint John, New Brunswick
Similarly to Grosse Isle, Partridge Island, New Brunswick, had a quarantine station that had been used since the 1780s for new immigrants. This did not hold up for very long as this island was considerably smaller than Grosse Isle, and there were nearly 4,000 people on the island. It filled up almost immediately with the 1847 outbreak and within the summer, 2115 people on the island died, roughly half of the population that landed on the island.

Bytown (Ottawa)
The outbreak of typhus would hit Bytown with the arrival of over 3,000 Irish immigrants. The fever first appeared in June 1847 but progressed to be bad enough to erect fever sheds. Approximately 200 people died in quarantine.

Kingston
Those with typhus in Kingston, Ontario found shelter in makeshift "immigrant sheds" near the waterfront. Some 1,400 immigrants died, despite the efforts of local religious and charitable organizations.

New York City
Irish immigrants heading to New York due to the Great Famine resulted in a typhus outbreak in 1847. 147 cases were treated at the New York Hospital over a 7-week period, with 80% of the cases contracted during the Atlantic crossing and the other 20% resulting from secondary spread in the city. There was an 11% mortality rate.