July 30, 1936 - 78 years-ago today, St Louis suffered its first reported death from an illness which would go on to become known as St Louis Encephalitis. Locally, the summer of 1936 was one of the hottest on record, with 421 people dying of heat-related causes. But peoples biggest fear was this mysterious sleeping sickness, & not knowing what caused it, they didnt know how to prevent it. From around the country, doctors & scientists were called in to study the problem. But it was a pathology professor from our local Washington University, Margaret Smith, that determined it was a virus, spread by mosquitos, and not caused by bacteria. This illness would claim 221 lives in St Louis that summer.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 00:33:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015