HP109: Smallpox in Hawaii

HP109: Smallpox in Hawaii

This is a request from Brandon Midgett for a topic about the 1800’s outbreak of smallpox on the Hawaiian islands. There is not a lot of information on the Internet about this subject, so I used two great books as my main sources. Below are links to the books and the few websites I did use for information. Thanks for listening!

The Hawaiian word for smallpox is ma’i pu’upu’u li’ili’i (the sickness with many little pimples).*

Sources:

Gavan Daws’ Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands
John Tayman’s The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai
http://www.hawaii.edu/nhcoe/Sept99_newsletter.html#pox*
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h43-pa.html
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/smallpox/article_em.htm
http://dermatology.about.com/cs/smallpox/a/smallpoxhx.htm