By Donna Campisano, specialist, Communications, APHL

Remember the iconic computer game The Oregon Trail? It was set in 1848 and tasked players with leading a group of pixelated pioneers along the rugged and rutted trails from Missouri to the undeveloped Pacific Northwest.

The decades-old game was a classroom staple in the ’80s and ‘90s and is still popular with history-minded kids today. The aim is to keep your computer crew alive as it makes the 2,170-mile east-west trek. Like the real-life pioneers, you had to hunt buffalo, dodge rocks during a river crossing, avoid rattlesnake bites as you walk alongside your wagon, and steer clear of dozens of other hazards.

But perhaps the biggest danger Oregon Trail travelers faced was disease.

And a lot of it.

Whether on the real Oregon Trail or in its namesake game, people routinely got and died of diseases with ominous-sounding names such as dysentery, diphtheria and typhoid fever.

You would think that the 175 years of medical advancements that have taken place since the pioneers headed west would have made the many diseases that felled them obsolete. But that hasn’t always been the case, especially in underdeveloped areas of the world—and even sometimes here at home.

5 Oregon Trail diseases we wish were gone—but aren’t

1. Dysentery. Water filtration systems, flushing toilets and disinfectants weren’t exactly a thing on the Oregon Trail. So, you can see how dysentery, an intestinal disease that causes bloody diarrhea and is spread through infected feces, could thrive. One of the most common forms of dysentery is caused by the bacteria Shigella. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 450,000 people in this country are infected with Shigella. The rates are much higher in underdeveloped parts of the world where clean drinking water, indoor plumbing and proper sanitation are less common.
2. Cholera. Another diarrheal disease that flourished on the Oregon Trail was cholera, also spread through feces-contaminated water and food. Cholera was so deadly that people often succumbed to it just hours after getting sick. In 1849, a cholera epidemic killed thousands along the Nebraska and Kansas portions of the trail. Thanks to proper sanitation systems, cholera isn’t much of a problem in this country anymore, but according to CDC, up to four million people around the world will contract cholera, with 143,000 dying from it. In the first six months of 2024, 247,000 cholera cases and over 2,000 deaths worldwide have been reported, says the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
3. Measles. People didn’t travel the Oregon Trail alone—for safety and support, they usually teamed up with other groups and formed a wagon train, which could number hundreds of people. With so many people sharing tents, campfires and supplies, it’s no surprise, then, that highly contagious diseases such as measles were rampant. According to CDC, for every one person who has measles, nine out of 10 people nearby will also contract it. While there have been periods where measles cases were minimal, the virus is now being detected more often by public health laboratories. From January 2020 to March 2024, CDC reported 338 measles cases in this country, with 29% of them occurring in the first quarter of 2024 alone.
4. Diphtheria. This highly contagious bacterial infection that’s spread through close contact with infected individuals was another constant companion of the westward-bound pioneers. Diphtheria is now rare in the US, although nearly 30,000 cases worldwide were reported in 2023.
5. Typhoid fever. Typhoid fever is an illness caused by Salmonella bacteria and, like dysentery and cholera, is transmitted through feces-contaminated food, water and surfaces. Over 9 million people contract typhoid each year, says CDC, with 5,700 of them in the US. Without proper treatment, the very high fever that is characterized by typhoid fever can last months and lead to deadly health complications. Public health professionals advise practicing safe eating and drinking habits (e.g., drinking bottled water, washing your hands, avoiding food from street vendors, etc.), especially when traveling to areas where typhoid is more common, such as South and East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The post The Oregon Trail may be long gone, but not the diseases that lined its path appeared first on APHL Blog.

Visit Original Post >>>