ORANGE COUNTY ALMANAC : The Typhoid Epidemic of ’23
On a night in 1923, physicians across Santa Ana were awakened by calls from people stricken with convulsions and vomiting. It was a typhoid epidemic, and doctors were baffled by how suddenly it began.
Hundreds fell ill, and 28 died before it was over. Health officials eventually discovered that the city’s water supply had become contaminated.
Source: “This Was Mission Country” by Warren F. Morgan
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