Epidemics
Some of the major epidemics in the United States (and elsewhere) through 1918:
Year(s) | Location | Disease | Comments |
1657 | Boston | Measles | |
1687 | Boston | Measles | |
1690 | New York | Yellow Fever | |
1713 | Boston | Measles | |
1729 | Boston | Measles | |
1732-3 | Worldwide | Influenza | |
1738 | South Carolina | Smallpox | |
1739-40 | Boston | Measles | |
1747 | CT, NY, PA, SC | Measles | |
1759 | N. America | Measles | |
1761 | North America & West Indies | Influenza | |
1772 | North America | Measles | |
1775 | North America (especially NorthEast) | unknown | |
1775-6 | Worldwide | Influenza | |
1783 | Dover, DE | Bilious Disorder | “extremely fatal”, likely hepatitis |
1788 | Philadelphia, New York | Measles | |
1793 | Vermont | “putrid fever” and Influenza | |
1793 | Virginia | Influenza | killed 500 in 5 counties in 4 weeks |
1793 | Philadelphia | Yellow Fever | |
1793 | Harrisburg, PA | Unknown | |
1793 | Middletown, PA | Unknown | |
1794 | Philadephia | Yellow Fever | |
1796-7 | Philadelphia | Yellow Fever | |
1798 | Philadelphia | Yellow Fever | I’d consider this one long 5+ year endemic period with flare-ups |
1803 | New York | Yellow Fever | |
1820-3 | Nationwide | “Fever” | starts Schuylkill River |
1831-2 | Nationwide | Cholera | brought from Asia |
1832 | New York City, and others | Cholera | |
1833 | Columbus, OH | Cholera | |
1834 | New York City | Cholera | |
1837 | Philadelphia | Typhus | |
1841 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever | especially bad in South |
1847 | New Orleans | Yellow Fever | |
1847-8 | Worldwide | Influenza | |
1848-9 | North America | Cholera | |
1849 | New York | Cholera | |
1850 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever | |
1850-1 | North America | Influenza | |
1851 | Great Plains, IL, MO | Cholera | |
1852 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever | 8000 die in New Orleans |
1855 | Nationwide | Yellow Fever | |
1857-9 | Worldwide | Influenza | |
1860-1 | Pennsylvania | Smallpox | |
1865-73 | Philadelphia, NY, Boston, New Orleans | Smallpox | |
1865-73 | Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC | Cholera | |
1873-5 | North America, Europe | Influenza | |
1878 | New Orleans | Yellow Fever | |
1885 | Plymouth, PA | Typhoid | |
1886 | Jacksonville, FL | Yellow Fever | |
1918 | Worldwide | Influenza | More people were hospitalized in WW1 from this epidemic than from wounds. Up to 80% death rate in some US Army camps |
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