Faroe Islands measles epidemic and Panum's study
Epidemia de sarampión en las Feroe y estudio de Panum
- Date
- 1846 · confidence high
- Place
- Faroe Islands, Denmark
- Credited to
- Peter Ludvig Panum
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Panum studied the 1846 measles outbreak, which affected about 6,000 of the islands' 7,800 people, and showed that it is spread by contact, that the incubation period is about 14 days and that those who had it are immune for life. It is a foundational work of epidemiology.
The outbreak was caused by a carpenter arriving from Copenhagen; elderly people who had had measles in 1781 did not catch it. Panum observed the outbreak in 1846 and published the study in 1847.
What it led to
- the concept of lifelong immunity after an infection
- the epidemiological method based on data from an isolated territory
- study of isolation and contagion before germ theory