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Source: http://www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2014/08/one_hundred_years_ago_as_war_b.html
The battle against bubonic plague: 100 years ago, New Orleans waged war on rats
By Richard Campanella
on August 05, 2014 at 8:00 AM, updated August 05, 2014 at 7:24 PM
One night in June 1914, a 49-year-old Swedish sailor who had recently arrived in New Orleans agonized feverishly in a steamy downtown boarding house. Rushed to Charity Hospital, he would soon die the loneliest of deaths -- in an isolation ward, far from home, surrounded by solemn doctors consulting furtively.
An autopsy confirmed their suspicions: cause of death was bubonic plague, the dreaded lymphatic disease spread by infected fleas on rats. "Black Death," which had nearly wiped out parts of Europe and Asia in the 1300s, had arrived at New Orleans -- at the Volunteers of America Home at 713 St. Joseph Street, to be exact...
The battle against bubonic plague: 100 years ago, New Orleans waged war on rats
By Richard Campanella
on August 05, 2014 at 8:00 AM, updated August 05, 2014 at 7:24 PM
One night in June 1914, a 49-year-old Swedish sailor who had recently arrived in New Orleans agonized feverishly in a steamy downtown boarding house. Rushed to Charity Hospital, he would soon die the loneliest of deaths -- in an isolation ward, far from home, surrounded by solemn doctors consulting furtively.
An autopsy confirmed their suspicions: cause of death was bubonic plague, the dreaded lymphatic disease spread by infected fleas on rats. "Black Death," which had nearly wiped out parts of Europe and Asia in the 1300s, had arrived at New Orleans -- at the Volunteers of America Home at 713 St. Joseph Street, to be exact...