A contribution to the historical and epidemiologic knowledge of epidemic typhus in Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: David de Morais, J. A.
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://revista.spmi.pt/index.php/rpmi/article/view/1499
• topic: tifo epidémico; tifo exantemático; piolhos; gripe pneumónica; varíola; Portugal; epidemic typhus; exanthematous typhus; lice; pneumonic influenza; smallpox; Portugal

Exanthematous typhus probably made its first appearance in Portugal at the end of the 15th century. Since then there have been several epidemic outbreaks, especially during the most trying times of our History: the Napoleonic Invasions, the Liberal Wars, etc. The last important epidemic typhus outbreak in Portugal took place in 1918-1919 and it affected mostly the north of the country.In this study, the author makes an historical and statistical analysis with a special focus on problematic issues of epidemic typhus outbreaks during the first half of the 20th century.The noteworthy hallmark of this research is the author’s proof that in 1918-1919, there was not only one epidemic outbreak in Portugal but three simultaneous outbreaks: epidemic typhus, pneumonic influenza and smallpox.