h It is unfair to the victims of the famine, and far too easy just to say that "millions died of starvation" during the Great Hunger. Many people suffered through prolonged, terrible, agonizing, painful illness before they died. It wasn't starvation alone that caused the loss of so many lives. Many died of the diseases that occurred as a result of the social conditions that developed as the famine got progressively worse and as a result of the British refusing to admit that any epidemic was likely to occur.
h The following descriptions of the diseases are meant to be difficult to read.... Just as the deaths were difficult for the victims.
h During the time of the Great Hunger, it was a general belief that famine itself led to epidemics of illness characterized by fevers. However, it is now known that the people who died from the "famine fevers" were victims of one of two illness that are caused by the common louse transmitting microorganisms to humans. These diseases break out during events that lead to overcrowding, poor hygiene, poor sanitation, and when medical care and hospitalization are barely possible.
h Typhus is an infection caused by specific microorganisms, Rickettsia, which is found only in man and the louse. The louse becomes infected after swallowing the blood of a human victim of the disease, and then transmitting it to the next human it bites.
h The bite of the louse is irritating and itchy, and the victim inadvertently aids in his own infection by scratching and breaking the skin, allowing the Rickettsia to enter the blood stream. In addition, there are so many organisms in the excrement from the louse, that the disease can be spread to a human without being bitten, by handling the clothing of a patient.
h Typhus is a horrible disease. The organism attacks small blood vessels, especially those of the skin and brain. Small blood clots form and the blood supply to small areas is cut off. Symptoms appear abruptly, including severe headaches and body aches and pains. The patient's temperature goes to 104 or higher for as long as two weeks. A cough develops along with severe constipation. Hearing is affected; the face becomes dusky; and a rash appears which worsens daily, eventually causing the victim to take on a dark hue which led the Irish to refer to this as the Black Fever. The patient develops severe pain and sores and then loses fingers and toes from gangrene. With the rising temperature, the pulse quickens and the victim becomes delirious and stuporous, and then going into a coma. Death occurs shortly thereafter from a complete collapse of the vascular system.
h Relapsing Fever is also transmitted by the louse which has swallowed the disease-causing organism, a Spirochete, from the blood of a bite victim. Again, any condition that increases the risk of contact between humans and the louse will lead to an epidemic.
h Shortly after a bite, high fever, vomiting, intense headache, muscle and joint pains, cough, and nosebleeds begin and last for a few days. Then the patient has episodes of diffuse sweating which leaves him exhausted. After about a week of some improvement, the symptoms usually re-appear. These "relapses" can go on for weeks. The infection causes damage to the liver leading to jaundice and the term "yellow fever". Late in the course of the disease, diarrhea develops along with the profuse sweating which lead to a collapse and death.
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h The first symptoms are crampy, abdominal pains that improve after watery diarrhea. After this, a fever develops along with bloody, mucoid diarrhea. Eventually, as a result of gangrene affecting the colon, the patient passes large clots of blood and eventually dies of hemorrhage.
h During a famine, and subsequent starvation, people lose weight as the body uses up stored glycogen and then fat, for energy. Eventually, protein is used. In prolonged starvation there is a progressive loss of body fat and then muscle mass. Edema (swelling) of the legs occurs because of a lack of protein in the blood, and because neither the heart nor the kidneys can function correctly. The starving person loses both energy and strength. Death results from heart failure.
h Scurvy is caused by a prolong lack of vitamin C in the diet. Vitamin C comes from fresh fruits and vegetables. Scurvy is a painful disease. The gums become swollen, spongy, bleed easily, and loose their support tissue allowing the teeth to fall out. Joints become swollen and painful and don't function well. Blood vessels burst under the skin and cause dark blotches progressing up the leg to the middle of the thigh ("black leg disease"). The victim is constantly complaining, extremely weak, and faints often. Death follows episodes of severe vomiting.
h In The Great Hunger, Cecil Woodham-Smith wrote:
h The bones of the frame were covered with something which was skin but had a peculiar appearance, rough and dry like parchment, and hung in folds; eyes had sunk back into the head, the shoulder-bones were so high that the neck seemed to have sunk into the chest; face and neck were so wasted as to look like a skull; hair was thin, and there was an extraordinary pallor such as had never been seen before. (195)
h These descriptions of the causes of death during the Great Hunger are meant to cause the reader discomfort so that the suffering of the victims of the genocide will not be forgotten.