Pestis Redux: The Initial Years of the Third Bubonic Plague Pandemic, 1894-1901

The third and most recent bubonic plague pandemic came to international attention in Hong Kong in 1894 before infecting ports and riverine towns on every continent within the following five years. While generating similar control measures as well as popular responses in a variety of urban settings, plague also highlighted cultural and political differences, which are briefly examined here for Hong Kong, Bombay, Sydney, Honolulu, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Alexandria, Cape Town, Oporto, and Glasgow. Overall, while the plague's impact on humans was uneven, it proved to be an unmitigated disaster for wild rodents and their urban cousins all over the globe.