Colonial Public Health Events
•1760 Smallpox epidemic in Charleston, one of the worst in the colonial period. In a population estimated at 8,000, there were an estimated 6,000 cases and over 730 deaths, or 9% of the population.  From Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America,1953, pp. 94-95. •1790's   Yellow fever epidemics occur each year in Charleston. The worst outbreak kills 362 in 1799. The 1790 population was approximately 16,920.
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In the epidemic of 1759-60, according to the South Carolina Gazette, “It is pretty certain that the Smallpox has lately raged with great Violence among the Catawba Indians, and that it has carried off near one-half of that nation, by throwing themselves in the river, as soon as they found themselves ill - This Distemper has since appeared amongst the Inhabitants of the Charraws and Waterees, where many Families are down.”
The 1760 epidemic was staggering in scope: of approximately 8,000 residents of Charleston, an estimated 6,000 contracted the disease. In April 1760, the South Carolina Gazette reported 730 deaths due to smallpox.
John Duffy. (1953) Epidemics in Colonial America.  Louisiana State University Press