Manhattan sees first case of bubonic plague in 100 years
Read Time:1 Minute, 30 Second
Bubonic plague in America? Not a chance, right? Wrong! A couple, Lucinda Marker and John Tull, got sick while visiting Manhattan in 2002. At first the unfortunate folk thought they might be suffering from the good ole flu, but that wasn’t it; not by a long shot.
Not the kind of people to ignore such things, they decided to visit a doctor, where they discovered, to their amazement, that they had been bitten by plague-infected fleas back home in New Mexico. Yep. You read it right. PLAGUE-INFECTED.
Cases of bubonic plague aren’t exactly common these days, and in point of fact this was the first case of plague in New York City in over 100 years. “Of course, it was a good thing we got to the hospital because it was the first case of plague in New York City in over 100 years,” says Marker. Not that things went easily from there, NPR reports.
Stricken with the infection that killed at least a third of Europe in the Middle Ages, Tull slipped into a coma for nearly 90 days, and he developed gangrene, forcing Marker to make the terrible decision to have both his legs amputated—but it saved his life. Tull says he survived for three reasons: He’s “a tough son of a bitch,” “God just didn’t want me,” and his eldest son’s wife was pregnant with his first grandchild. “And by God, I was going to stay alive to see that little grandbaby.”
So, the next time you get flu symptoms, remember that bubonic plague, it seems, is alive and well in the United States….ring around the rosy, pockets full of posies, ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Follow MadMike’sAmerica on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to visit our HOME PAGE.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
There’s been some stuff bubbling about on the news in England lately about antibiotics becoming increasingly irrelevent as various bugs n germs grow immunity to them.
As Private Fraser often said in the classic British Sitcom ‘Dads Army’ “We’re doooomed”
If you’ve never seen it then find a way eh? Soooopurb.
We may be about to die but we can die laughing?
I see a whole lot of stuff making a comeback, if people go out and about with no way to take care of themselves if they have no health insurance. Dark ages will be a walk in the park compared with all the anti biotic resistant crap floating around. I’m just a barrel full of sunshine this morning aren’t I 😉
Well, if there is good news in this, it’s that back in the Middle Ages, they didn’t even know what was killing the people and had no medications to treat it. On top of that, they didn’t know how to keep it from spreading like we do now: hand-washing, isolation of the patient, etc. So, even if it’s back…it’s not back the same way and that is good news.
Very true Carol. Do you see the plague making a comeback perhaps?
I see it replaced with these new bugs that are super resistant to antibiotics because doctors have over-prescribed them for so many years.