What disease was brought to Hawaii?
What disease was brought to Hawaii? Then, as the nascent Hawaiian Kingdom worked to forge itself into an independent nation, foreign ships brought epidemics in waves: cholera (1804), influenza (1820s), mumps (1839), measles and whooping cough (1848-9) and smallpox (1853).
What disease killed many Hawaiians?
Diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, smallpox, measles, leprosy, and typhoid fever from the time of Cook's contact to the late 1800s reduce the Native Hawaiian population from over one million to less than 40,000 by 1890.
Why did so many Hawaiians get leprosy?
When or how leprosy came to Hawai`i is unknown, but it appears in records as early as the 1830s. Hawaiians, having no immunities to introduced diseases, were particularly vulnerable to infection. By the mid-1800s, Hawaiians suffered death and disfigurement at alarming rates.