1707–08 Iceland smallpox epidemic

Disease outbreak in Iceland Iceland, Kingdom of Denmark Over 30,000 12,000 Icelandic man who died en route from Denmark (?) Smallpox Variola major 1707–1709 Iceland experienced one of its deadliest outbreaks of smallpox beginning in 1707. The epidemic, known in Iceland as Stórabóla, ultimately killed between 12,000 and 18,000 Icelanders, close to one-quarter of the island's population at the time. Background Iceland in 1707 was a dependency of the Kingdom of Denmark. It had a small and exclusively rural population, with no towns or villages.Agnarsdóttir Anna Iceland in the Eighteenth Century: An Island Outpost of Europe? Sjuttonhundratal 10 11–38 Famine conditions in the late seventeenth century had already reduced the population, and only 50,681 people according to one tally of the 1703 census.G. Guðmundsson Eiríkur The 1703 Census - Our Heritage https://heimildir.is/wp-content/uploads/pdf-library/manntalid-1703-en_web.pdf Þjóðskjalasafn Íslands 2015 Reykjavik 22 Epidemic diseases like smallpox did not naturally sustain themselves on the island due to the relatively sparse population. Smallpox was endemic in mainland Scandinavia and the British Isles, however, presenting a vulnerability to cross-Atlantic spread of contagious diseases. Although early modern Icelanders did understand shipborne miasma to be the source of epidemics of smallpox and plague, preventative measures such as disinfection or quarantine were not practiced.Parsons Katelin Marit Faraldurinn í farangrinum: íslenskar faraldurslýsingar á árnýöld Ritið 2022 22 1 37–62 10.33112/ritid.22.1.2 https://ritid.hi.is/index.php/ritid/article/view/160/148 free Smallpox reached Iceland in 1655–1658 and again in 1670–1672, but the latter outbreak did not spread throughout the island, meaning that in most regions only the oldest generation had immunity to the disease.Steffensen Jón Menning og meinsemdir: Ritgerðasafn um mótunarsögu íslenzkrar þjóðar og baráttu hennar við hungur og sóttir 1975 Sögufélagið ReykjavíkÓlafsson Örn Stórabóla á Íslandi 1707 til 1709 og manntalið 1703 Náttúrufræðingurinn 2007 76 1-2 4–12 https://timarit.is/gegnir/991005560739706886 Epidemic In 1707, smallpox arrived in Iceland aboard a merchant ship from Denmark that made harbour at Eyrarbakki. Contemporary reports pinpoint the source of the epidemic as contaminated clothing that had belonged to an Icelandic student at the University of Copenhagen, Gísli Bjarnason. Accounts diverge as to whether Gísli Bjarnason died of smallpox while still in Copenhagen or in or near Norway en route to Iceland, but his belongings were returned to his family, who lived at the farm of Ás í Holtum. Although there is no evidence that other persons on board the Eyrarbakki ship were infected, Jón Steffensen has argued that fomites were likely not limited to the late Gísli Bjarnason's clothing and that the outbreak may have started simultaneously at Ás í Holtum and at Eyrarbakki. The next year it had spread to most regions of Iceland. Smallpox reached remote areas of East Iceland in 1709. Ultimately, the outbreak may have killed a quarter of the population of Iceland at the time.Eugene Foster Griffin E. L. DeWolf Oscar C. Homen George Abbot Saml. W. James E. H. Wood Thomas F. 1884 Efficiency and Safety of Vaccinations https://books.google.com/books?id=N6rFp-KHAtQC&pg=PA255 Public Health Papers and Reports American Public Health Association 9 255–256 Google BooksHays J. N. https://books.google.com/books?id=GyE8Qt-kS1kC&q=1707+Iceland+smallpox&pg=PA131 Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History 2005 ABC-CLIO 978-1-85109-658-9 Santa Barbara, California 131 en References Category:1707 disasters Category:1707 in health Category:18th-century disease outbreaks Category:1708 disasters Category:1708 in health Category:18th-century epidemics Category:Smallpox epidemics Category:18th century in Iceland Category:1707 in Europe Category:1708 in Europe Category:1709 in Europe Category:Disease outbreaks in Iceland