Colonial epidemic disease in Hawai'i

Colonial epidemic disease in Hawai‘i has greatly threatened the Native Hawaiian population since its introduction to the islands over a hundred years ago. Beginning with the first colonizers led by Captain Cook that arrived in the islands in 1778, all the way up until today, foreign disease has been present in Native Hawaiians. Because Hawai'i was so secluded and contained a population of only the Hawaiian people, the islands were considered a “virgin population. This meant that once foreigners arrived, the Native Hawaiian population was decimated by these illnesses while Europeans remained healthy. Some of these diseases included gonorrhea, syphilis, influenza, cholera, tuberculosis, the mumps, measles, smallpox, and leprosy (which lead to the creation of a leper colony on Moloka‘i in th

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