This document summarizes several diseases that were prevalent during the Irish Potato Famine including cholera, dropsy, dysentery, influenza, measles, relapsing fever, scurvy, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and typhus. It provides brief descriptions of the symptoms and causes of each disease. For many of the diseases, it notes that poor sanitation and malnutrition exacerbated by the famine likely enabled their spread.

1. Diseases of the Famine
By User AlanMc on en.wikipedia (taken by me (AlanMc) in 2006) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

2. Cholera
Characterized by “a large amount of
watery diarrhea.” Caused by a
bacteria, Vibrio cholareae, which
leads “an increased amount of water
to be released from cells that line
the intestines.” Other symptoms
include abdominal cramps, dry
mucus membranes, mouth, and skin,
excessive thirst, and lethargy
(University of Maryland.)
By Unknown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

3. Dropsy
(now referred to as edema):
Characterized by swelling due to
excess fluid under the skin;
affected skin will often “retain a
dimple after being pressed for
several seconds” (Mayo Clinic.)
By James Heilman, MD [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

4. Dysentery
(Shigella/Shigellosis): A bacterial
infection, spread via stool, water,
and food. Noted to be “linked
with poor sanitation,
contaminated food and water, and
crowded living conditions.”
Symptoms include abdominal
pain, blood in stool, diarrhea, and
fever (University of Maryland.)
By Rawlings, Leo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

5. Influenza
One of several diseases which
Mokyr and Ó Grádá note as
common regardless of the famine
and therefore harder to blame on
the famine, though it seems
unlikely to this author that
conditions of the day would have
done anything other than enable
its spread.
By Photo Credit: Content Providers(s): CDC/ Dr. Erskine Palmer [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

6. Measles
Highly contagious. Primary
characteristic is a rash; other
symptoms include fever, light
sensitivity, cough, eye redness,
and white spots in the mouth
(University of Maryland.)
By CDC/NIP/Barbara Rice [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

7. Relapsing Fever
Characterized by recurring
episodes of fever, and spread by
lice and ticks. Symptoms include
bleeding, coma, head and muscle
ache, “sagging on one side of the
face (facial droop),” weakness,
and, at the end of an episode of
fever, a “crisis” state of “shaking
chills… intense sweating, falling
body temperature, and low blood
pressure… may result in death”
(University of Maryland.)
By Photo Credit: Content Providers(s): CDC [Public domain], via Wikimedia
Commons

8. Scurvy
Scurvy, which, according to the University
of Maryland Glossary of Medical terms, is
brought on by Vitamin C deficiency. The
potato had a rich source of Vitamin C,
preventing scurvy in the Irish population
prior to the famine. Its effects include
weakness, anemia (shortage of healthy red
blood cells), and skin hemorrhages
(purpura) caused “when small blood vessels
leak under the skin” (University of
Maryland.) Mokyr and Ó Grádá note that
Vitamin C’s nutritional importance would
not have been known during the famine.
“Few people would have died of scurvy,”
they write, “but the accompanying
weakening of immune systems must have
contributed to the onset and fatality of
other diseases” (3.)
By Wellcome Library, London [Public domain], via Wikimedia
Commons

9. Tuberculosis
Symptoms include prolonged
coughing and coughing up blood,
weight loss, fatigue, fever, night
sweats, chills, and loss of appetite
(Mayo Clinic.)
By Yale Rosen [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

10. Typhoid Fever
Caused by exposure to salmonella,
usually in contaminated food or
water. Symptoms include fever,
head and muscle ache, weakness,
dry cough, swollen abdomen,
rash, diarrhea, and, troublingly,
loss of appetite.Those who don’t
receive treatment may “lie
motionless and exhausted with
[their] eyes half-closed in what’s
known as the typhoid state”
(Mayo Clinic.)
By Unknown [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)] [Public
domain], via Wikimedia Commons

11. Typhus
Spread by lice or fleas. There are two
types, murine and endemic, both of
which may present with symptoms
like abdominal pain, various aches,
rash, dry cough, and fever. Further
symptoms of endemic typhus, which
is common in areas where “hygiene
is poor and the temperature is cold,”
include chills, delirium, light
sensitivity, and low blood pressure”
(University of Maryland.)
By D. Raoult, V. Roux, J.B. Ndihokubwayo, G. Bise, D. Baudon, G.
Martet, and R. Birtles [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons