How Bubonic Plague Came To America, Part I: L.A. Outbreak
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - 08:20
in Health & Medicine
"Ring around the ros-ie,A pocket full of pos-ies,A tissue, a tissue,We all fall down..."-Old nursery rhyme In October of 1924, about a fortnight before Halloween, 39-year old Lucena Samarano started coughing up blood. Her family grew worried; not only was Lucena six months pregnant, but her condition quickly deteriorated, and her sickness was not the first such case in the Los Angeles boarding house where she lived. A couple weeks before, a neighbor and his daughter had come down with a strange disease. Unfortunately, like the neighbor's daughter, Lucena succumbed quickly. Five days after she fell ill, Lucena was dead. read more