Pandemic in Potosi Annette J. Van Dyke Over two hundred years after

Over two hundred years after their creation

his emotional appeals to friends and family

with virtually no budget

Then a tragic event forces Cleo

This issue of the Appalachian Review Heritage features writing from George Ella Lyon

Pandemic in Potosi Annette J. Van Dyke Over two hundred years afterIn 1719, a deadly and highly contagious disease took hold of the Imperial Villa of Potosi, a silver mining metropolis in what is now Bolivia. Within a year, the pathogen had killed some 22,000 people, just over a third of the city's residents. Victims collapsed with fever, body aches, and effusions of blood from the nose and mouth. Most died within days. The great Andean pandemic of 1717 22 was likely the most destructive disease to strike South