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Trachoma is an infectious disease caused by bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. [2] The infection causes a roughening of the inner surface of the eyelids. [2] This roughening can lead to pain in the eyes, breakdown of the outer surface or cornea of the eyes, and eventual blindness. [2]
A chronic infection of the eye, trachoma is now easily treated with a single dose of an antibiotic. Yet in the days before such medical miracles, trachoma was a chronic, scarring, and...
Immigrants arriving in the US on Ellis Island had their eyelids checked for trachoma using a buttonhook (a tool used to fasten tight buttons) – they often warned each other to ‘beware the buttonhook men’. Anyone found to have the disease was either sent home or treated on the island before being allowed into the country.
They searched for a disease in the eyes called trachoma. This eye disease cause blindness and it can also lead to death. Nearly 50% of those who had to be examined further before registration was due to this eye disease.
Doctors of the U.S. Public Health Service at Ellis Island often used these devices to check immigrants for trachoma, a highly contagious and difficult to cure eye disease. Eyelids were inverted or pulled outward to see if immigrants displayed symptoms of this dreaded disease.
14 Οκτ 2014 · To check for trachoma USPHS officers would flip back immigrants’ eyelids using their fingers or a buttonhook, an implement originally intended for fastening the small buttons common on shoes and clothing at the time. Put to a new use on Ellis Island, the buttonhook became a memorable part of many immigrants’ journey to the United States.
Ellis Island, which received over 10 million newcomers between 1900 and 1914, served as the largest ever medical screening facility. Far from reflecting a unified policy, the medical inspection offered a complicated compromise amidst a swirl of competing interests.
