Page 258 - ירושלים: גיליון רפואי

Epidemics in Jerusalem from the
Nineteenth Century to the Period

of the British Mandate

Eran Dolev

Contrary to the iconic image of the Holy City, nineteenth-century Jerusalem was a squalid
metropolis. No traveler or pilgrim passing through its gates failed to be astounded by the
lack of proper sanitary conditions and its inhabitants’ poor health. A combination of factors
accounted for this, including the lack of basic understanding of hygiene and health, public
indifference, irrigation of local vegetables with waste water – resulting in recurrent outbreaks of
intestinal diseases – and lack of regular, organized garbage collections. The Ottoman authorities
ignored these appalling sanitary conditions, and failed to enforce municipal sanitation and
health regulations.

Due to the poor sanitary conditions, the population suffered constantly from infective intestinal
disorders, particularly bacterial dysentery and typhoid, which were often fatal. Another common
disease in Jerusalem and neighboring villages was trachoma, an extremely contagious infective
eye disease that mainly affected children and often caused blindness.

Palestine experienced its first deadly cholera outbreak in 1831, and many of its victims were
Jerusalem residents. Cholera often causes dehydration and death within hours. At that time,
the city’s population dealt with illnesses, especially epidemics, in two ways: by closing off the
city, and with folk practices including rituals, charms, and oath taking.

Visiting the city in 1839, Moses Montefiore was shocked by the sanitary conditions and the
effects of the epidemic, which had claimed hundreds of lives within several months. He decided
to found a hospital in the city, and sent Dr Shimon Frankel to Jerusalem four years later. In
1854, Baron Rothschild founded an eighteen-bed hospital in the city, headed by Dr Bernhard
Neumann. These steps were of little help, however, during the next cholera outbreak in 1865.

Diphtheria was another deadly, recurrent bacterial disease that specifically targeted children. In
1892, three of Eliezer and Devorah Ben-Yehuda’s children died in a diphtheria outbreak.

Epidemics in Jerusalem from the Nineteenth Century to the Period of the British Mandate ■ 45e