Leprosy, Plague and Other Visitors to New York

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: February 10, 2011

When New York City’s health department revealed last weekend that three people had contracted cholera, it was a reminder that the city is not just a world capital of arts, business and the like — but also of exotic diseases.

Multimedia Graphic .

If a disease has cropped up in the world, there is a good chance it will eventually find its way to New York City through the diverse travelers who cross the city’s borders.

For instance, several people every year are found to have a biblical disease, leprosy, though health officials say no one has to fear catching it in the subway. In 2002, bubonic plague, more commonly associated with the 14th century, found its way to New York City through two travelers who came from a ranch in New Mexico, where the disease is endemic in flea-bitten wild animals like prairie dogs.

Since the anthrax scares after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the city has sharpened its surveillance systems to pick up evidence of biological warfare. Its so-called syndromic surveillance system, which was used during the swine flu pandemic in 2009, looks for unusual patterns of disease in hospital emergency rooms. As part of a federal program to guard against bioterrorism, biosensor detectors in various large cities use a device to draw in air and analyze it for telltale pathogens.

“We definitely are a world capital,â€