1899 Porto plague outbreak

Late 19th-century epidemic in Portugal 1899 Porto plague outbreak Dr. Ricardo Jorge no Laboratório Municipal de Bacteriologia.png Ricardo Jorge working in the Porto Municipal Bacteriological Laboratory 1899 Porto, Kingdom of Portugal Bubonic plague 320 casesPontes David 2012 O cerco da peste no Porto: Cidade, imprensa e saúde pública na crise sanitária de 1899 master's degree Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/bitstream/10216/73326/2/28279.pdf pt 2 March 2020 2 March 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200302232248/https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/bitstream/10216/73326/2/28279.pdf dead 132 deaths The 1899 Porto plague outbreak was an epidemic of bubonic plague centered in the city of Porto, in the north of Portugal. First outbreak of the third plague pandemic in Europe The arrival of plague in the Portuguese city of Porto signalled the first outbreak of the third plague pandemic in Europe, attracting international attention, due to fears of a return of the Black Death in the continent. It also pitched local and national authorities as well as medical experts in heated arguments about the nature of the disease and the way to contain it, namely, the controversial decision to surround the city by a military-enforced cordon sanitaire for four months, imposed by the government of Prime Minister José Luciano de Castro. Laboratory proof for the responsible infectious agent The city's Medical Health Officer, Ricardo Jorge, head of the city's Municipal Services of Health and Hygiene and of the Municipal Bacteriological Laboratory, led the efforts to contain the disease and personally gathered laboratory proof to correctly identify the responsible infectious agent: this earned him a great reputation as a modern sanitarian and bacteriologist and launched his highly successful national and international career.Echenberg Myron 2010 Plague Ports: The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague, 1894-1901 https://books.google.com/books?id=X4kUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 They Have a Love of Clean Underlinen and of Fresh Air: Porto, 1899 New York New York University Press 9780814722336 Deaths There were 132 deaths attributed to the plague outbreak, out of 320 total cases. Eminent bacteriologist Luís da Câmara Pestana contracted the disease after receiving a small scratch while examining a plague corpse during the outbreak, and died shortly afterwards. Political impact The plague outbreak had considerable political, social, and economic repercussions: it exacerbated class divisions and tensions between the republicans in Porto and the royalist government in Lisbon (the centuries-old Portuguese Monarchy and would be replaced by the Portuguese First Republic in a revolution just 10 years later). Portugal's public health legislation was modernised in the years following the crisis; the Directorate-General of Health was established in response to the outbreak;https://www.dgs.pt/institucional/notas-historicas.aspx DGS: Notas históricas DGS: Historical notes pt Direção-Geral da Saúde 2 March 2020 See also List of epidemics References Category:1899 disasters Category:1899 in health Category:19th-century disease outbreaks Category:1899 in Portugal Category:1890s epidemics Category:Health disasters in Portugal Category:History of Porto Category:Disease outbreaks in Portugal Category:Third plague pandemic Category:19th-century disasters in Portugal