The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #73738

Howard Markel, MD, PhD, University of Michigan, 100 Simpson Memorial Institute, Box 0724, 102 Observatory, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0724, 212 305 0092, howard@umich.edu

At times when epidemic disease has coincided with economic crisis and social or political upheaval, stigmatized immigrant groups in American have often been the targets of coercive public health initiatives to control disease. This paper will begin by chronicling the experience of the 268 Russian Jewish passengers of the SS Masilia along their wretched odyssey from Czarist Russia, to Constantinople, Marseilles, Naples, and finally to the Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island in New York City’s East River, where many of them died, as they became implicated in the typhus epidemic of 1892. It will then look beyond this episode at the end of the 19th century at America’s response to immigrants during other epidemics.

Learning Objectives:

• Using a case study of the experience of Jewish immigratns to New York City in 1892, participants will analyze the American public health response to arriving immigrants.

Keywords: History, Immigration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.