Yellow Fever and Immunity between 1906 and 1919: Susceptible People

Abstract

This article shows the relation between yellow fever and those people’s susceptibility to contract it in the city of Mérida, Yucatán, according to medical speech between 1906 and 1919. This text is based on the scientific texts published during the studied period, whose contents indicated that coming people from other places were more vulnerable to contract the disease. Entry and exit logs were reviewed at O’Horan hospital, with the purpose to identify those who were affected by the so-called “black vomit”. The analysis reveals that those who received the diagnosis came from other countries or different places of Mexico, in an epoch when economic development of henequen farms and migratory currents were favored by authorities. This research is an approach to a specific group of social actors, migrants, whose vulnerability is also evidenced by health and decease processes.