On October 2, 1980, a 47-year-old woman from south lake Tahoe, California, lost her 9-month-old pet cat to an acute infection. Three days later, the woman's own temperature shot up, but she still went to her job at a day-care center. The fever worsened; she developed chest pains and shortness of breath. Two days later she drove herself to the hospital. The diagnosis was pneumonia, and she was treated with tetracycline. Shortly afterward the woman died.
Not until four days later did anyone realize that the woman had died of plague. Fearing that treatment might arrive too late, doctors rushed prophylactic antibiotics to the children and staff at the day-care center. Luckily, no one exposed to the woman fell ill. In this country, we tend to think that the horrors of plague are confined safely to the past. Plague, the black death, burned through the medieval world of Europe, killing ...
