Cholera

**Cholera** Cholera is a diesease that swept through Europe in 1824 as a result of the living conditions throughout the growing industrial centers of that time.

**__Description__** Cholera is a disease that is a result of the contamination of food and drinking water with feces. The symptoms included diahhrea, vomiting and sking turning a blueish color from loss of fluids.

** __Transmission__ ** Cholera comes from infected water and food contaminated with bacteria that induces vomiting and diahhrea. When the discharge of this fecal and vomit was not cleaned up properly it found its way to waterways and food sources, affecting a much larger population through the very vital resource of drinking water. This virus was spread perfectly throughout Europe in the industrial revolution.

**__Begining__** media type="youtube" key="MO1hBzG5sck" height="315" width="420" align="center"


 * (Start At 6:15)**

As the spread of cholera found itself into Europe, the perfect senario of an epidemic was in England. The slums of industrial England was virtually a breeding ground for this diesease. Such close quarters and jammed in populations proved to be a fatal consequence of this outbreak.

Living conditions in England were up to 40 people living per house. This number grew because of the increasing aveage pay that hovered from $500 to $800 per person. The increased involvement of more people in these cities was a direct cause into the grow of the disease. The streets of English cities were the trash dumps of the people living there. Streets were filled with feces, food waste, and whatever was tossed out by the city dwellers. In an account by Henry Mayhew one can picture what a typical sight would be in England during this pandemic:

//We then journeyed on to London Street, down which the tidal ditch continues its course. In No. 1 of this street the cholera first appeared seventeen years ago, and spread up it with fearful virulence; but this year it appeared at the opposite end, and ran down it with like severity. As we passed along the reeking banks of the sewer the sun shone upon a narrow slip of the water. In the bright light it appeared the colour of strong green tea, and positively looked as solid as black marble in the shadow - indeed it was more like watery mud than muddy water; and yet we were assured this was the only water the wretched inhabitants had to drink.//

//As we gazed in horror at it, we saw drains and sewers emptying their filthy contents into it; we saw a whole tier of doorless privies in the open road, common to men and women, built over it; we heard bucket after bucket of filth splash into it, and the limbs of the vagrant boys bathing in it seemed by pure force of contrast, white as Parian marble.//

//In this wretched place we were taken to a house where an infant lay dead of the cholera. We asked if they really did drink the water? The answer was, "They were obliged to drink the ditch, without they could beg or thieve a pailful of water." But have you spoken to your landlord about having it laid on for you? "Yes, sir and he says he will do it, and do it, but we know him better than to believe him."//

** __First treatments__ ** In the 1830's doctors tried to treat cholera by restricting fluid intake, by prescribing purgatives, and even to bleed their patients this proved to no avail after the disease continued its ravaging through Europe. At this time it was still not known that the virus traveled through the drinking water.



** __Cure__ ** in 1854 an English doctor named John Snow found a link between cholera and contaminated drinking water which was a great breakthrough in the cure to Cholera. His ideas were not originally accepted but in later times cities began to invest in more effective sewer systems and waste deposits to prevent the spread of such diseases. By 1884 Cholera was discovered in water via the microscope and could now be contained by public health officials. The scientific revolution in cellular biology excelled in the late 1800s and answered many questions in the fight against disease. The developments of tools such as the microscope and the stethoscope proved to be very helpful in the fight against cholera and is a direct example of technology helping the fight against humanities new enemy.

Here is a map that John Snow made in order to figure out the cause of all of these deaths and was able to trace the spread of Cholera to the pump at the corner of Cambridge and Broad Street This was a major step in the search for an end to such a epidemic. In this map, the bars represent people who had died at this time:

Bibliography: LasHigginst, Robert. "The 1832 cholera epidemic in East London." November 12, 2002. http://www.mernick.org.uk/thhol/1832chol.html (accessed February 15, 2012).

Glausiusz, Fi Josierst. "How Cholera Became a Killer ." October 1, 1996. http://discovermagazine.com/1996/oct/howcholerabecame900 (accessed February 15, 2012).

Tobler, Waldo. "Snow's Cholera Map." //National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis//. . http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/pubs/snow/snow.html (accessed February 15, 2012).

Underworth, Ashworth. //The History of Cholera in Great Britain//. London: The National Center for Biotechnology Information, 1947. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2184374/?page=1 (accessed February 15, 2012).

Burke, James. "What The Doctor Ordered." //The Day The Universe Changed//. Posted May 21 2009. Science Channel. Web, The Day The Universe Changed.