True, but the book I read said that the people were so dirty at that time that they often had rat fleas as well as human fleas. Also discussed the pneumonic transmission, air-borne.
Nope. It's caused by too many illegal aliens illegally aliening from places with too many rats. ~ Old_Mil
Yet another way America is celebrating diversity.
We need more guest workers. ~ putupjob
Well....what the heck....nobody has placed the blame so far, so I guess I have to....
It's Bush's fault... ~ B.O. Plenty
Correct, just another benefit from uncontrolled Chinese and south American illegals. This is why in the old days the sceened everyone. Why are we slipping back in time. ~ Roverman2K
*gentle cough*
Actually plague first came to the United States in the 1850's. The rail companies were legally importing Chinese coolies to work on the transcontinental railway.
There was a small plague outbreak in San Fransisco's Chinatown district. An alert doctor spotted the outbreak almost immediately, and appealed to the city council to institute a quarantine and rat catching program.
The town fathers refused to believe there was plague in their fair city.
They screwed around long enough for it to infect the local ground squirrel population where there was no hope stopping it from spreading. Thanks to their inaction, now one can be exposed to plague anywhere in the western US.
Any parallels one wishes to draw with a more recent "gay plague" are left to the reader as an exercise.
Those who do not learn the lessons of the past...
Rat fleas are happy to jump on a human in the absence of a rat. Same with dog fleas and cat fleas.