A major epidemic occurred in Ireland between 1816 and 1819 , during the famine caused by a worldwide reduction in temperature known as the Year Without a Summer . An estimated 100,000 people perished . Typhus appeared again in the late 1830s , and yet another major typhus epidemic occurred during the Great Irish Famine between 1846 and 1849 . The Irish typhus spread to England , where it was sometimes called " Irish fever " and was noted for its virulence . It killed people of all social classes , as lice were endemic and inescapable , but it hit particularly hard in the lower or " unwashed " social strata
Year Without a Summer
Year Without a Summer
Typhus