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- Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 13:17:00 EST
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- From: SLR2@CCDDCD1.EM.CDC.GOV
- Subject: Re: Pest house
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-
- This might help you regarding the epidemic disease or diseases of Haverhill,
- Mass., in the late 1600's.
-
- In 1701 Massachusetts passed laws for the isolation of smallpox patients and
- ship quarantine, to be used whenever neccessary. The difficulty with such
- measures (isolation hospitals, quarantine facilities) was that no continuing
- organization or even committee existed at the time to assure ready
- recognition of undesirable situations or noncompliance with the requirements
- that the legislation enacted.
-
- Many early North American settlements and Native American communities were
- completely obliterated by epidemic diseases, particularly smallpox. Some
- strong possibilities for the epidemic diseases that may have been present in
- Haverhill, Mass, in the late 1600's are yellow fever, small pox, cholera,
- typhoid, louse-borne typhus, louse-borne relapsing fever, diphtheria,
- tuberculosis (antiquated name: consumption), malaria, measles, influenza,
- and scarlet fever. During the 1600's, Bubonic plague periodically swept over
- the European continent. For example, in London in 1603 over 1/6 of the
- population died from bubonic plague, in 1625 another 1/6, and in 1665 about
- 1/5 of the population in London. FYI, yellow fever caused the abandonment of
- Philadelphia as the US national capital.
-
- I hope this is helpful.
-
- Susan Arday
- INTERNET: SLR2@CCDDCD1.EM.CDC.GOV
-