Third+Plague+in+San+Francisco



The plague caused by a bacterium usually transmitted by the bite of fleas from an infected host, often a rat. The bacteria are transferred from the blood of infected rats to the rat flea.The bacillus multiplies in the stomach of the flea and then when the flea bites a mammal, the consumed blood is regurgitated along with the bacillus into the bloodstream of the bitten animal. Any serious outbreak of plague in humans is preceded by an outbreak in the rodent population. [1]

 In the summer of 1899, a ship sailing from Hong Kong to San Francisco had two cases of the plague on board. The ships which came from China and Hawaii brought cargoes, immigrants and infected vermin's. Vermin's such as rats came off the boat and allowed for the disease to infected the city of San Francisco. [2]



 No passengers on the ship were ill when the ship reached San Fransisco it was still quarantined on Angel Island. The boat was searched and 11 stowaways were found on the boat when it was searched. The next day they were missed and then later found in the Bay. A autopsy showed that the bodies contained the plague bacilli. Although these bodies contained the bacteria there was no immediate outbreak of the disease. The rats which were on the ship at the time did have something to do with the epidemic hitting San Francisco nine months later. [3]



How did the plague effect San Fransisco?
 In San Francisco the people started to have anti-Chinese feelings because of the strong coloration between the Chinese and the plague. The city decided to quarantine Chinatown. The people of Chinatown and the business community became offended and protested to have the quarantine lifted. Once it was lifted people hid the dead and locked their doors so that they wouldn't be effected by the plague.

 Locking the doors and hiding from the plague didn't work, because two more plagues turned up and the city had to officially announce that the plague was officially present in the city. Even though it was present and people were dieing from it the government refused to believe it or do anything to help the problem. Many states stopped trading with California to insure that the plague would not spread to them. [4]

 In the year 1990 the police in San Francisco cancelled all holidays because of the outbreak. They did not want large groups of people coming in contact with one another because it would allow for the plague to pass from person to person. Because the rats were a large reason to the spread of the plague they got a bad reputation and were thought of as evil. [5]



**The Response to the plague**
Two doctors each tried in their own way to end the plague. Joseph Kinyoun and Rupert Blue were the two doctors in D.C. who tried to take on the bubonic plague. They tried to subdue the outbreak from the lab by having all boats coming into Angel Island under quarantine. They also tried to work on the street by trying to purge the infection. The public health efforts were limited because of the lack of scientific knowledge that was available at the time, so it made it hard to do a lot of work on the streets. [6]

Joseph Kinyoun opened the National Hygienic Laboratory in D.C. to help purse the bacteriologic diagnoses of the plague that hit San Francisco. He wanted to help bring Louis Pasteur 's germ theory to America. He was not able to do more investigation into the subject because he was sent to go and guard the ports of the Pacific because the bubonic plague had started to ravish China. [7]



What effected the plague?
 The weather was predicted to have been on of the affects of the plague ending. The cold weather and long dry season forced the vermin's back underground and bring a break in human deaths. This caused the plague to go into hibernation. [8]



**When did the plague leave San Francisco**

 Thanksgiving of 1908 the headlines read - "Clean Bill of Health Given San Francisco: surgeon general Wyman reports Pacific Coasts States Free From Plague" [9]



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [1] A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: Bubonic Plague Hits San Francisco." // PBS: Public Broadcasting Service //. Web. 8 Apr. 2011. //http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm00bu.html// . <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [2] //Ibid//  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [3] //Ibid//  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [4] //Ibid//  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 32px;">[5] Marilyn Chase, The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco (New York: Random House, 2004). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [6] //Ibid//  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [7] //Ibid// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [8] //Ibid// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> [9] //Ibid//