From ancient writings, we have always known that Leprosy had a stigma that many other diseases never have. Highly contagious and rife with gross symptoms that could be hard for the non-afflicted to stomach, those with leprosy have always been isolated, more so than treated.

Leper colonies were created to help contain the disease and put it out of the public view. In a 1955 article called “Leprosy in the United States”, Dr. L.F. Badger documented the pockets of Leprosy within the United States. After looking at the data, it was determined that the majority of US cases of Leprosy occurred within just a few small communities.   One of the communities with Leprosy occurrences was Key West. Within Florida, only 11 out of 67 specific counties had reported incidences within a period of 33 years. One county stood out with a larger than typical concentration of the disease. That was Monroe County, which comprises the entirety of the Florida Keys. But it wasn’t the entire Keys that had reports of the disease - it was only Key West!   During this measurable period, the state of Florida reported 137 cases of Leprosy. Of those 137 cases, almost half (44.5%) were located in Monroe County. There were 96 patients who were born in Florida and just under 45% of them resided in Key West at the time they were diagnosed.    With a little more digging and pouring over the case histories of the 96 patients in Key West with Leprosy, it was determined that 78 of these patients probably contracted Leprosy while they were living in Key West! The rest of the patients most likely contracted the disease outside of Key West and could have brought the disease back to Key West.   This little discussed part of Key West history is interesting in that when you look at the location within the city where the Leprosy patients lived, it was determined that 65 of the patients diagnosed, actually resided within the city limits of Key West. What is even more surprising is that 56 of those 65 patients lived in what is now known as Old Town Key West. And a further concentration of 39 diagnosed patients lived within 5 square blocks of Old Town. This highest concentration area was the residential area that fronts what we refer to today as the Key West Bight!   It’s never been well documented what could have caused this outbreak of Leprosy within Key West, but the location of the diagnosed patients does seem to support the fact that they could have been exposed by other travelers and ships coming in and out of the bight.    And it was today, March 18, 1909: A man died of leprosy in a house on Virginia Street (which would have been in the outermost part of the affected area of the city). The house and all contents were destroyed by fire under the direction of Fire Chief Fulford.

Today in Key West History is brought to you by 43 Keys Media. You can find us at http://43keys.com.

The source for this content is:

https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC2024574&blobtype=pdf