Editing Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (section)

== End of the Epidemic ==

The epidemic waned with the arrival of frost in October and November 1793. The Aedes aegypti mosquito cannot survive cold temperatures, though this connection would not be understood for another century—Walter Reed's commission did not prove the mosquito transmission theory until 1900. By mid-November, Philadelphians who had fled began returning to a city transformed by catastrophe. An estimated 5,000 people had died, including many of the city's most prominent physicians (some of whom died from exhaustion as much as disease). Families had been destroyed, businesses ruined, and the fabric of community life torn apart. The emotional trauma persisted long after the physical symptoms had passed.<ref name="estes"/>

The epidemic prompted lasting changes in Philadelphia's public health infrastructure. The city established permanent health offices and quarantine facilities, including the Lazaretto quarantine station at the mouth of the Delaware River. Street cleaning and garbage removal were improved, water supplies were gradually upgraded, and regulations governing burials and handling of the dead were strengthened. Though the miasma theory of disease that drove many of these reforms was incorrect, the practical measures proved beneficial in reducing other diseases spread by contaminated water and unsanitary conditions. Yellow fever would return to Philadelphia in subsequent years—notably in 1797, 1798, and 1799—but never with the devastating force of 1793.<ref name="newman"/>