ABSTRACT
During the nineteenth century, many Americans became concerned with the growing number of immigrants. Americans worried the "outsiders" would take their jobs, inhabit their cities, and bring deadly diseases. The "diseased immigrant" frame in newspapers reinforced an underlying fear that outsiders would bring disease and death. In an effort to avert the spread of disease, the push for "decontamination" played a major role in public health. Newspapers expressed concern that Europeans might come to the United States, lose their jobs or contract diseases, and need charitable assistance. Press dispatches from overseas alerted US officials of disease outbreaks in Europe that could be brought to the United States with incoming shiploads of immigrants. News media coverage treated immigrants as "intruders" who would import dangerous germs that caused typhus, cholera, and tuberculosis.
