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46 stories matching contagi
- Hilltop Residents Rebel Against Contagious Hospital
A bombshell announcement that contagious disease wards would be built at the county hospital site ignited a neighborhood protest.
- The Politics of Public Health
As the city grows, Dr. Lueders argues that the municipal health officer's role must evolve beyond basic contagion management to include systemic urban sanitation.
- Neighborhood Fights Hospital Plans
Residents of Pacific Heights rally against the proposed site for contagious disease wards near the county hospital.
- Smallpox Scare Hits Newport
A logging camp worker arrives in town carrying a contagious disease, forcing the city to confront the need for a pest house.
- The Diphtheria Outbreak at Leavenworth's Schoolhouse
When an infectious disease forced the closure of the local school, the town’s newspaper demanded accountability, questioning why infected children were permitted in the classroom.
- The Yellow Flag Mandate of 1872
Before the age of modern public health infrastructure, Seattle's early municipal government passed strict, penalty-heavy laws to contain contagious diseases through quarantine and public shaming.
- Aberdeen Establishes Its First Board of Health
A newly passed city ordinance formalizes local medical oversight and mandates reporting of contagious diseases to combat epidemics.
- The City's 'Pest House' Under Siege
A Seattie facility for contagious diseases is damaged by wayward debris from local riverfront construction.
- Health Commissioner Struggles to Find Care for Patient
Dr. Sargentich highlights the urgent need for a municipal hospital as a patient with contagious disease struggles to find a bed.
- The Neighborhood Siege on Commercial Street
A century and a half ago, a massive petition of Seattle residents demanded the city ‘cleanse’ a house of ‘contagious pollution,’ setting a precedent for civic moral panics.
- The Town Council Declares War on Contagion
A newly passed health ordinance mandates house quarantines, mandatory vaccination, and strict reporting protocols for residents of Kennewick.
- The Doctor's Carriage Scare
A Seattle school teacher's rigid adherence to hygiene protocols leads to a misunderstanding in the Nineteenth Ward.
- The Doctor Who Didn't Report Scarlet Fever
A Seattle physician is hauled into court for failing to tell the health office about a sick child — a test of the city's power to track contagious disease.
- Seattle Shut Every School to Stop Scarlet Fever
In May 1895 the health board ordered public, private and parochial schools closed, then ran into questions about quarantine, teachers' salaries and who would pay for a contagious-disease hospital.
- The City Council's Yellow Flag Fiasco
When Seattle officials passed a health ordinance to curb contagion, they refused to apply it to a notorious local brothel, sparking a public outcry against political hypocrisy.
- A Remarkably Low Death Rate—and Nowhere to Put the Fever Cases
Seattle's health officer reports 467 deaths in 1894, credits sewers for cutting typhoid, and asks for a small hospital for diphtheria and scarlet fever.
- Suspicious Deaths Aboard the Princess Louise
Health officials examine the bodies of three Chinese men found dead on a steamer arriving from Victoria.
- The Smallpox Scare on the Seattle Waterfront
When a stranger fell ill at his Seattle lodgings, he didn't wait for quarantine—he boarded a steamer for Portland, leaving the city in a state of nervous apprehension.
- The Kalispel Were Told to Pick Their Own Lands—While Settlers Hoped They'd Leave
A federal allotment agent was expected in the Calispel Valley, where the Kalispel were to select individual plots from land they already held.
- The New Rules of Mortality
Aberdeen codifies the role of the health officer in managing public sanitation and mandatory reporting for every birth and death.
- The Letter that Carried Fever
A tragic medical mystery unfolds as a mother's joyful news becomes a vector for disease across the Pacific Northwest.
- Who Should Pay for the City's Sick?
A legal dispute over whether the City of Seattle or King County is responsible for the medical care of the indigent.
- The Dedication of St. Joseph's Hospital
Bishop Junger officiates the opening of a state-of-the-art infirmary meant to serve the sick regardless of creed.
- The Town's Pest House Dilemma
A Garfield official and a local doctor clash over who should pay for a young man's post-quarantine clothing.
- The Filthy State of Seattle's Bakeries
A state labor inspector finds local bread shops in 'vile' condition, prompting a push for stricter sanitation laws and oversight.
Also about this, in other words
- The Diphtheria Menace in Pioneer Seattle
A century and a half ago, Seattle residents faced a terrifying invisible contagion, with the newspaper urging 'sanitary' precautions that eerily mirror modern public health guidance.
- The 'Disgusting Custom' of Victorian Child-Kissing
As diphtheria claimed lives along the Pacific Coast, public health experts in 1877 issued a stark warning against social rituals that helped the contagion spread.
- The Dangerous Habit of Ignoring Contagion
An 1886 editorial warns Seattle residents against the 'criminal' practice of visiting neighbors and public schools while carrying the germs of diphtheria and scarlet fever.
- Seattle Declares Victory Over Smallpox Outbreak
After twenty days of tension, health officials confirm the city is safe, though the bill for containment—and a sharp rebuke for those who brought the sickness to town—remains.
- The Silent Epidemic: Diphtheria in 1880 Seattle
A harrowing, vivid account of the early stages of diphtheria, a 'perplexing theme' of illness that terrorized families and baffled medical practitioners in the Washington Territory.
- Quarantine in the Pioneer City: A Smallpox Scare in 1880
When two cases of smallpox arrived by steamer from San Francisco, Seattle authorities acted with swift, hard-edged precision to contain the contagion.
- Neighbors Shun Sick Family During Fever Outbreak
A community's fear of contagion leads to the isolation of a grieving family in Oakesdale.
- The Unlikely Remedy for the Smallpox Outbreak
When a Seattle-area family faced a smallpox contagion in the winter, they bypassed medical uncertainty for an old household mixture—and claimed a miraculous recovery.