pest house

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pest house

A hospital for patients affected with plague or other infectious disease.

References in periodicals archive ?

The First Public Health Initiatives: Inoculation Hospitals & Pest Houses

The formation of the American hospital before the twentieth century: 1st Place Winner AMT 2007 Feature Writing Contest

In 1894 Louisiana opened the "Leper Home" on the site of the abandoned "Indian Camp" sugar plantation near the town of Carville after citizens became aware of and began protesting the presence of the pest house and its seven "lepers." The state passed Carville off as an ostrich farm and smuggled the first patients 75 miles up the Mississippi by barge.

Leprosy, domesticity, and patient protest: the social context of a patients' rights movement in mid-century America

In spite of Ragusa's seeming priority, various sources claim that the first such station was a pest house built on the island of Sardinia in 1453 or buildings erected at Pisa near the church of San Lazzaro in 1464 (15,17).