Epidemics in Literature and

American Culture

Katie Wallace, Katie Snell, Christina Bonacci

Literature and MedicineDr. Farkas10/29/2009

A Historical Look at Smallpox

First appeared in New York City in 1649 Years of Outbreaks and Death Tolls in NYC 1870-1875: 3,498 1901-1902: 700 Cases reappeared in 1922,1925,and 1939 1947: LeBar outbreak

Time Period Crowded, poor urban areas

Sanitary concerns

Public Health Measures Vaccination Sanitation

http://scienceprofonline.googlepages.com/Cowpox_nih.jpg/Cowpox_nih-full.jpg

A Historical Look at Typhoid Fever

A water and food-bourne bacterial infection

First discovery of the bacterial cause: 1880

Healthy carriers can spread the disease.

Time Period Lack of health codes Poor hygiene and sanitation

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1266/727202312_93a39c8adb.jpg

Typhoid Fever

Outbreak• Early 1900’s

• The first carrier identified in the U.S. was in 1907

• 10% mortality rate for those who had contracted it.

Public Health Measures •Sanitation measures•Carrier identification•New public health standards

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/visualculture/images/A27541.jpg

A Historical Look at AIDS

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Recognized as a disease in 1982

Still continues today in U.S. and other nations

Time Period Continues to be associated with social and

cultural taboos Blood donor screening 1983

Public Health Measures Education

Safety campaigns

Smallpox

A Narrative of the Methods and Success of Inoculating the smallpox in New England Benjamin Coleman, 1722

o Reverend Cotton Mather vs. William Douglass, physician

o Controversy over inoculationo Does it do more harm than good?o Is it ethical for me to make myself

sick?o Religious debate

o Gift from god or heathen practice?

• Dr. Zay

-Elizabeth Stuart Phelpshttp://scienceblogs.com/denialism/inoculation.jpg

Typhoid Mary 1907, The healthy carrier

Kathleen Ford’s “Typhoid Mary’s Proposal” Dilemma: individual freedom vs. public health

"That's not exactly what it says, Little Bertie.”

"She must be sad though, don't you think, being all alone.”

"There's a hospital on that island, and other people have to stay.”

"But, Patricia, she's in a little house all by herself.”

"Well, a house to yourself isn't a bad thing, and the East River isn't the middle of nowhere. I expect if we stood in Queens, we'd be able to call to her.”

"But don't you think it's a terrible thing--a woman as healthy as a horse, to be locked up for who knows how long?”

"I don't know about terrible. There's them that died because of her carrying the typhoid fever."

www.mariantomasgriffin.com/typhoid%20mary%20pictures4.htm

AIDS Blood and Aids in America: Science,

Politics and the Making of and Iatrogenic Catastrophe

-Ronald Bayer

- High Risk Donors, the exclusion of homosexual male donors

- Public health vs. Privacy

“The thing is, people are dying. The medical problem is more important than the civil rights issue.”

-James Curran, Head of AIDS activities at the CDC to gay

male population

www.msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/040521/040521_madcow_hmed12p.hmedium.jpg

Part of the New York American article of June 20, 1909, which first identified Mary Mallon as "Typhoid Mary."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/mary.html

• six-page, letter written in late June 1909.

• written to George Francis O'Neill - her lawyer

• used in his petition of June 28 before the New York Supreme Court

• goal: released from quarantine.

• Mallon had been quarantined against her will for over two years

• discusses her frustrations of the time “I have been in fact a peep show for everybody. Even the interns had to come to see me and ask about the facts already known to the whole wide world.”

Mary Mallon’s First-Hand Letter:

Illustration from Harper’s Weekly. Year 1873.

1981: First Signs of AIDS in the New York Times

New York Times, July 3, 1981, p. A20

New York Times, August 29, 1981, p. 9.

New York State Health Department Ad

Year: 1985

San Francisco AIDS Foundation Ad

Year: 1987

http://www.originallifemagazines.com/Assets/ThumbNails/118-507-0000-t.jpg

Condom Encouragement

1987

Gay Men’s Health Crisis

• Prominent poster produced in America in 1987

• tackled discrimination against people living with HIV

• image was inspired by Ryan White

'I have AIDS please hug me' poster

M·A·C AIDS Fund •Established in 1994

by M·A·C Cosmetics

• 100% Proceeds go to VIVA GLAM lipsticks would go to the M·A·C AIDS Fund.

•Through the annual Kids Helping Kids Card Program, M·A·C Cosmetics has provided over $135 million (US) to date

• Campaign

• 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of the totes will go to help fund YouthAIDS programs

• South Africa and worldwide

ALDO Fights AIDS (AFA)

Campaigns and Funds:

Works Cited AIDS Education Global Information System. "So Little Time: An AIDS History." AEGiS. 27 Oct. 2009. <http://www.aegis.com/default.asp?req=http://www.aegis.com/topics/timeline/>   Bayer, Ronald." Blood and AIDS in America: Science, Politics, and the Making of an Iatrogenic

Catastrophe". Blood. Feuds: AIDS, blood and the Politics of Medical Disaster. Ed. Eric Feldman, Ronald Bayer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999 p. 17-59. Print.

  Colman, Benjamin. A narrative of the method and success of inoculating the small-pox .  in New England. Dublin: George Grierson at the Two Bibles in Essex Street, 1722. Print.   Brandt, Allen M. “AIDS in Historical Perspective: Four Lessons from the History of Sexually

Transmitted Diseases.” Sickness and Health in America. 3rd ed.Eds. Judith Leavitt and Ronald Numbers.Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997. 426-432.

    Ford, Kathleen. "Typhoid Mary's Proposal." The Antioch Review Summer 2009: 425+. General

OneFile. Web. 26 Oct. 2009. <http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.mcphs.edu/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS&userGroupName=mcp_main>   Leavitt, Judith W. "Be Safe. Be Sure. New York City's Experience with Epidemic Smallpox." Sickness . and Health in America. 3rd ed. Eds. Judith Leavitt and Ronald Numbers. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997. 407-

415.   Leavitt, Judith W. “”Typhoid Mary” Strikes Back: Bacteriological Theory and Practice in Early 20 th

Century Public Health.” Sickness and Health in America. 3rd ed. Eds. Judith Leavitt and Ronald Numbers. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997. 555-566.

"The Boston Smallpox Epidemic, 1721". Harvard University Library Open Collections Program: Connotation: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics. 2008. http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/smallpox.html. web. 26 Oct. 2009.