PLAGUE-Hilary L Hunt MD

PLAGUE-This word is derived from the Greek word plaga which means strike and the Latin word plaga which means stroke or wound. In everyday usage it carries the implication of some disease or condition which annoys , aggravates or impedes us as individuals, family groups, communities, cities, or nations.

For instance, we may hear someone say that she has been ‘plagued’ by migraine headaches all her life. Or we may observe that a family seems to be plagued by chronic poverty. On a larger scale, a community may have been ‘plagued for years’ by a very poor water supply. In modern times it seems that certain cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and others in the US are ‘plagued’ by homelessness and filth—Chicago is ‘plagued’ with gun violence.

In the fourteenth century a disease caused by a rat borne bacterium known simply as the ‘Plague” wiped out millions of…