Smallpox killed 50-60 thousand Egyptian children yearly before 1825.

Evidence

Clot Bey says that on his arrival in Egypt in 1825 smallpox was “cruelly ravaging the country. Every year it killed no fewer than fifty to sixty thousand children,” making it alone responsible for increasing the infant mortality rate by 40 or 50 per thousand, in turn raising the overall annual death rate to something between 3 and 4 per thousand. In 1824 the Pasha requested M. Drovetti, the French Consul-General, to secure a number of doctors from France who would administer a wide vaccination program in the countryside. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1114

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth checking what the overall Egyptian population was then to gauge the mortality rate’s severity.