Three Major Illnesses In The 1900's

“In the late 1800 and early 1900's, infectious diseases were the most serious threat to health and well being.” Until the late 1900’s the leading cause of death was communicable diseases. As doctors gain more knowledge about medicine the death rate of those disease has substantially decreased. The three main illnesses of the 1800’s-1900’s were scarlet fever, tuberculosis, and chicken pox, yet a positive outcome from these horrendous sicknesses were antibiotics, remedies, and vaccines.

Scarlet Fever was one of the many illnesses in the 1800’s. Although outbreaks are less common now as in the past, Scarlet Fever is one of the deadliest diseases. “Throughout the 1800s, Scarlet Fever was a major killer. (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15) It had been a

“Tuberculosis was another big killer in the 1800s (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15). By the late 1930’s the death rate had dropped by 92% (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15). By 1970, the decline had reached over 99% (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15). During the 1900’s this disease was killing 5 to 16 times more people than typhoid, scarlet fever, whooping cough, measles, or diphtheria (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15).” Despite the substantial amount of deaths from Tuberculosis many good treatments to not only treat tuberculosis but to help cure many other infections and bacterias appeared. For instance, Rifampin, an antibiotic used to treat Tuberculosis, Neisseria meningitidis- also known as Meningitis- or infections in the nose and throat. Another treatment is a vaccine known as Bacillus Calmette- Guerin to prevent T.b. or to heal bladder tumors or bladder cancers. “It wasn’t that all these infectious diseases had simultaneously changed to be less deadly (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15). It was the environment in which they had existed had shifted from one where they were very often deadly to one where they were they were not a significant threat (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15). Improved sanitation, hygiene, nutrition, and other factors had played a pivotal role in this amazing defeat of infectious disease (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15).” Similar to Scarlet Fever,

Although Chickenpox outbreaks are scarce, during the 1800s- 1900s Chickenpox outbreaks were a prevailing issue. “….an extremely contagious viral disease (Funk/Wagnalls 1)....which most people have only once, is rarely a dangerous disease in otherwise healthy children. It can be life-threatening (Funk/ Wagnalls 1)...” Although Chickenpox killed and infected hundreds of people, many beneficial things came out of it Such as the vaccine, known as Gamma Globulin, which can help people suffering from Chickenpox and Hepatitis. Gamma Globulin wasn’t introduced until the late 1900s- years after some of the biggest Chicken Pox epidemics were over. Now that pharmacists have progressed in the study of medicine we now have vaccines to limit the spread of Chickenpox. It wasn’t mandatory to take it until the 90s, so many kids born in the 2000s have and may never have Chickenpox. Chickenpox was like any other disease in the 1800’s- when people started to become aware of the unsanitary conditions, and change their lifestyle-it slowly started to vanish. “People develop antibodies, and the diseases eventually die out, scarlet fever is an example (Health Facts 1).” Similar to Scarlet Fever, Chickenpox ultimately died out, and now has almost