Importancia de la viruela, gastroenteritis aguda y paludismo ... - Oulu

Xaviera, Torres Joerges, On the importance of smallbox, acute gastroenteritis and
malaria in Finland between 1749 and 1850
Faculty of Humanities, Department of Art Studies and Anthropology, University of Oulu, P.O.Box
1000, FIN-90014 University of Oulu, Finland
2005
Oulu, Finland
Abstract
In the Swedish Kingdom, of which Finland was a part until the 19th century, the parish burial records
specified the cause of death earlier than other European countries.
Using the information contained in 1.2 million death records from 234 different parishes, the
impact of the main infectious diseases inflicted upon the Finnish population, during the period
1749–1850, is analyzed. The study is focused on the temporal and geographical distribution of three
of the main epidemics; gastroenteritis, malaria and smallpox.
The Industrial Revolution, the Demographic Transition and the Bacteriological Era only arrived
to Finland at the end of the 19th century. The population analyzed, living at a time prior those
changes, was therefore rural, scattered and with high birth and mortality rates. It was, therefore,
helpless in front of many illnesses. Infectious diseases were the main cause of death, especially
among children.
One sixth of all analyzed deaths can be attributed to these three causes of death studied.
Acute gastroenteritis generated mortality, constantly in its endemic areas (southeast of the country
and Ostrobothnian coast) and also in the form of large epidemics, accompanying other factors
affecting the population, such as war or famine.
Smallpox was endemic in the country and caused periodic epidemic peaks which generated high
mortality among children. The most densely populated areas acted as reservoirs from which the
disease spread outwards the rest of the country. The generalization of the practice of vaccination,
from the first decades of the 19th century, modified both the spatiotemporal distribution of the
epidemics and the age distribution of smallpox mortality.
Under the period studied, malaria was endemic in the southwest of Finland, being of most
importance in the Åland Islands. The temporal variations in the incidence of this disease do not seem
to be related to crises in the population, but rather due to environmental factors. The above causes of
death greatly influenced the modulation of mortality in 18th and 19th century Finland.
Keywords: 18th and 19th centuries, causes of death, databases, epidemics, Finland,
gastroenteritis, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), malaria, Parish burial records,
smallpox,