Natural and Man-Made Disasters
Major U.S. Epidemics

1793: Philadelphia: more than 4,000 residents died from yellow fever.

1832: July-Aug., New York City: over 3,000 people killed in a cholera epidemic.
Oct., New Orleans: cholera took the lives of 4,340 people.

1848: New York City: more than 5,000 deaths caused by cholera.

1853: New Orleans: yellow fever killed 7,790.

1867: New Orleans: 3,093 perished from yellow fever.

1878: Southern states: over 13,000 people died from yellow fever in lower Mississippi Valley.

1916: Nationwide: over 7,000 deaths occurred and 27,363 cases were reported of polio (infantile paralysis) in America's worst polio epidemic.

1918: March-Nov., nationwide: outbreak of Spanish influenza killed over 500,000 people in the worst single U.S. epidemic.

1949: Nationwide: 2,720 deaths occurred from polio, and 42,173 cases were reported.

1952: Nationwide: polio killed 3,300; 57,628 cases reported; worst epidemic since 1916.

1981: Dec. 2004 Total estimated U.S. AIDS cases: 944,306; total estimated AIDS deaths: 529,113 (Centers for Disease Control); 2005 total world AIDS cases: 40.3 million.