Hemorrhagic Fever Epidemic in Grenada in the 18th Century: A Medical and Historical Analysis

Abstract

Unlike present times, when the major health concerns for Grenada are chronic diseases, the island’s main health problems in the past were infectious diseases. The aim of this review is to examine whether a hemorrhagic fever epidemic precisely occurred in Grenada in the 1700s, and to identify the mostly likely etiologic agents associated with the outbreak. The methods used to collect information included museum research, interviewing a key informant and reviewing past documents in national archives in London, textbooks, and the internet. This medical and historical analysis reveals that there is sufficient evidence that an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever occurred in Grenada in 1700s and that there are more probable etiologies than previously thought. These include yellow fever, leptospirosis, viral hemorrhagic fever, and dengue hemorrhagic fever.