![]() ![]() Today, the most we have to fear is a few hours of annoyance as we try to scratch the itch away. Of the 20,000 who remained in the city during the epidemic, more than 17,000 contracted the disease and more than 5,000 of those died.Īnyone who has spent time around the Delta in summer knows the feeling of hearing those dreaded mosquitoes buzzing around your ears. At the time, Memphis had a population of 50,000, but when it became clear this was going to be an outbreak that should be taken seriously, 30,000 abandoned the city in a panic. ![]() In the Mississippi River Valley more than 18,000 died of yellow fever in just three months. I just finished Jeanette Keith’s 2012 book “Fever Season: the Story of a Terrifying Epidemic and the People Who Saved a City.” 2018 is the 140 th anniversary year of this particular outbreak, so anyone already interested in West Tennessee history will find her book especially captivating. ![]()
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