Search results
- Mountain fever: Usually not fatal, with symptoms that include intestinal discomfort, respiratory distress, and fever. The diseases that fit these symptoms are: Rocky Mountain spotted fever, typhoid fever, and scarlet fever. Quinine water was used to treat Rocky Mountain spotted fever, chills and pneumonia.
www.nps.gov › articles › 000Death and Danger on the Emigrant Trails - U.S. National Park ...
People also ask
Did the Oregon Trail emigrants know about disease?
What was the worst disease on the Oregon – California Trail?
What are the symptoms of Rocky Mountain spotted fever?
Mountain Fever – With symptoms such as intestinal discomfort, diarrhea, headache, skin rashes, respiratory distress, and fever, this ailment was usually not fatal. The diseases that fit these symptoms include Rocky Mountain spotted fever, typhus, typhoid fever, and scarlet fever.
Apr 2, 2019 · Dysentery, smallpox, measles, mumps, and influenza were among the diseases named in diaries and journals, but cholera, mountain fever, and scurvy were probably the biggest killers. Mountain fever was not described well enough to pin down exactly what it was.
- Everyone Has Cholera
- Joseph Has Diphtheria
- You Have Dysentery
- Sally Has Measles
- Mary Has Died of Typhoid Fever
Then: The number one killer of the actual Oregon Trail, cholera is an infection of the intestines caused by ingesting the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. Spread through contaminated food or water, cholera released an enterotoxin that effectively flooded the intestines with excess water. This led to continual watery diarrhea, causing severe dehydration an...
Then: Caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, diphtheria is an airborne bacterial disease. It usually showed up first in the nose and throat, but could also surface as skin lesions. A gray, fibrous material would grow over airways, causing difficulty breathing and sometimes uncontrollable drooling, as well as a deep cough and chills. Diphtheria was ...
Then: Dysentery, a.k.a. shigellosis, was not as widespread on the trails as its peer cholera. During the 19th century, dysentery was a bigger problem on the Civil War battlefields. Like cholera, dysentery spread via contaminated water and food, thriving in hot and humid weather. Unlike cholera, dysentery lived in the colon and caused bloody, loose ...
Then: Evolved from the rinderpest virus, the highly contagious measles ravaged the United States in the 19th century. It was not measles, but complications like bronchitis and pneumonia, that made it life threatening. Measles was spread through contaminated droplets—coughing, sneezing, wiping one’s nose and then touching anything. It caused nasty r...
Then: Unfamiliar with the virtues of boiling water first, Oregon Trail pioneers contracted typhoid like many other diseases—from contaminated water. Caused by Salmonella Typhi, typhoid was spread when an infected person “sheds” the bacteria. Sparing you the gross details, let’s just say the bacteria lived in a person’s blood and intestines. The maj...
- Laura Turner Garrison
Feb 7, 2012 · Three deadly diseases featured in The Oregon Trail – typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery– were caused by poor sanitation. Luckily, those of us living in industrialized nations (United States, Canada, Japan, Western Europe, etc.) have access to sophisticated modern sanitation and water treatment systems, which make these diseases so rare ...
The timing, symptoms, and location suggest mountain fever. The country along the Oregon Trail from South Pass to the Snake River was the location of sevexal other cases of mountain fever. A cluster of cases was reported near the Portneuf River in Idaho. Charles Harper relates an event from 1847: "A great number of men have been
- 290KB
- 8
Dec 6, 2017 · The South Pass of the Oregon Trail. (James L. Amos/Corbis via Getty Images) The Oregon Trail was a roughly 2,000-mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon, that was used by ...
Dec 29, 2020 · Mountain fever: Usually not fatal, with symptoms that include intestinal discomfort, respiratory distress, and fever.
