Cholera Outbreak

Although most disease struck the poorest, the upper class was not fully immune. Because people wanted to move to cities to make their lives better, they were forced to live around these diseases without proper means for prevention, protection, and recovery. Once contracting the disease, they would either die within hours or suffer from uncontrollable diarrhea and pain. In addition, scientific knowledge on disease was not as developed as it fortunately is today. Doctors had not yet learned the concept of a germ theory and instead associated the disease with the “bad air” that surrounded toxic, polluted cities. This “bad air” was known as miasa and was incorrectly used to explain the spread of cholera in major cities during the mid 1800s. After studies and research, doctors noticed that there was a heavy concentration of miasmata near certain rivers, but they still connected it to a lack of air quality in bustling cities such as Manchester, London, and Paris. Although air pollution and coal emissions did play a role in certain illnesses, they were not the main cause for diseases such as cholera. Poor ventilation, dirty homes, malnourishment, and no access to clean water made people easily susceptible to a ruthless disease like cholera. Moreover, causes of cholera were investigated more thoroughly after John Snow’s theory claimed that cholera was spread through the water John Snow was an English physician who is today considered one of the fathers of modern epidemiology, the branch of medicine that deals with the distribution and control of diseases relating to health. Finally, doctors could see cholera in a new light and were able to find better means of protection and prevention for its victims. Today, doctors recognize the germ theory of disease which states that some diseases are caused by microorganisms, and not just by “bad

-Identifying the health needs He linked the common illness cholera to people whom drank from the wells. He observed those getting ill and which areas and pumps they drank from and recorded it on a map, he was then able to establish all those getting ill were in fact drinking from the same pump, and consequently in 1854 John Snow removed the handle of the Broad Street pump and ceased the epidemic of Cholera in Soho, London

The work of these two men changed the contemporary views on how disease was spread. By solving the cholera mystery, they helped contribute to making the world safe for bigger cities. Over the next few years a lot of changes were made. Both the medical and public health establishments latched onto Snow’s waterborne theory and through one of the greatest feats in engineering history, London started the process of making an entirely new sewer system. This, along with other precautions such as boiling water that was suspected to be contaminated, brought an end to city-wide choleric outbreaks. Besides the improvements in sewage, the improvements of sanitary conditions all around greatly diminished the spread of disease and held a major part in making the modern city possible. Overall, it turned out that something that was once horrendous and deadly for a massive amount of people, eventually turned out to be helpful for the future of mankind. (Johnson)

2. Why weren’t Snows ideas about cholera accepted at this early date? 3. Explain why cholera outbreaks are more consistent with contamination of water than air. 4. Given that cholera outbreaks are more consistent with contamination of water that air, why did the miasma model persist?

1.1.6 Final Report An outbreak occurred on the campus of Ottawa University. An investigation was necessary to find the cause of the outbreak, and how to stop it from continuing to spread. The campus clinic was interested in testing the following nine patients: Sue, Jill, Anthony, Wanda, Maggie, Maria, Arnie, Marco, and Alvin. All of the students have similar symptoms and agreed to being tested except for Alvin.

Dr. John Snow was known as an intelligent physician who had a background with anesthesia advancements. He believed that cholera was a waterborne disease and that it was contaminated by the sewage. Snow’s goal was to convince others about the issue and stop it from spreading. His theory about the intestinal disease, in which was published in 1849 in an article, was laughed at and many doctors believed that his idea was “wrong” and they continued to believe that it was airborne. He wanted to prove many wrong and begin to further research and experiment the disease.

Outbreaks of cholera were not isolated to the European and Asian continents, as several major cases within the United States have been recorded back to colonial times. As trade increased with the old world, infected sailors bringing the disease to major port cities, spreading it even further as products became distributed across the nation. Famously documented as one of the most vital turning points for public health medicine within the US, the city of Chicago mirrored what was unfolding in the 1854 London outbreak. Congruent to Snow’s findings, entire families suddenly became severely ill and dying off. As an effort to combat the pestilence, Ellis Chesbrough, an already established railroad engineer, designed a series of sewer systems modeled

Between the 1830’s to 1860’s, cholera spread into the United States from India by trade routes. Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by drinking or eating material that is infected with Vibrio cholerae. Cholera causes watery diarrhoea, but can show days later or never show

This narrative took place in London, summer of 1854. London was a city on the rise at the time and it they had a rapid spread of cholera disease. In eight days, over a tenth of

The book The Ghost Map: The story of London’s most terrifying epidemic—and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world” by Steven Johnson is about the 1854 cholera epidemic in London. There were no sewage systems to get rid of waste in London at the time, so the people would throw their untreated wastes into the Thames River and pits called cesspools. This increased with the invention and popularization on the water closet, which drained even more wastes into the cesspools. This way of ridding of wastes then proceeded to contaminate the city’s water supply and spread diseases faster. During the summer of 1854, the mother of a sick baby, baby Lewis, washed her child’s soiled cloth diapers in a bucket of water that she poured into the house’s cesspool cellar, starting the cholera epidemic. Coming into contact with the contaminated water led many of the city’s people to contract the disease and die.

The hygiene movement helped in the avoidance of communicable diseases, diseases for example cholera, tuberculosis and water illnesses in large part by modifying the people surroundings. In the 1850s, John Snow assisted in recognized the importance in data collection and documentation. His actions terminated an outbreak of cholera in a district of London. Using the same methodology Ignaz Semmelweis, applied it to restraint fever of childbirth a major source of maternal mortality. The reason that this was happening was that after physicians worked on the death bodies, usually they did not wash their and delivered babies and contaminating both, the mother and the baby.

So all it That was the time where the newspapers started writing that cholera is coming back on the South side. People started panicking, it was a disaster. The area where the disease occurred, especially the 40 Board Street, became empty, sometimes you could see people going to get water, but that was pretty much it. People who heard about the spreading disease were afraid and most of the families either packed up and left, or they barricaded themselves in their houses. The disease was spreading really fast, and it took so many lives it seemed like eve more than in other outbreaks of cholera. The physician dr. Snow was the one who was called to people who had the cholera symptoms, first it was the Lewis baby, and so on. He was really good educated doctor, an anesthesiologist who had done pioneer work on the application of ether and chloroform to minimalize the pain of surgeries, and he did it well. Queen Victoria was one of the first patients who used chloroform for the birth of her eight child. After she got the medicine she had been so calm and she had less pain. Later on she was appreciated that she could get it. More and more people started catching the disease, and doctor Snow wanted to know why, and what is going on, because after his long studying, reading and looking for information about

The Cholera Epidemic In this paper, I am going to discuss the epidemic that was going on during the time in which my story was written. The Cholera epidemic was a very serious illness and was spreading very rampantly. I will discuss the signs and symptoms that are associated with the illness and what was the probable cause. I will also discuss a few changes that were made with public sanitation do to the outbreak of Cholera.

Cholera The disease, cholera, is an infection of the intestines, caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. As stated in Microbes and Infections of the Gut, the bacterium is “a Gram-negative, comma- shaped, highly motile organism with a single terminal flagellum” (105). Cholera is characterized by the most significant symptom that presents with the disease, diarrhea, and victims can lose up to twenty liters of body fluids in a day. Cholera can be a serious disease, due to the serious dehydration that can occur, but it is only fatal if treatment is not administered as soon as possible. This research paper includes information on the causes of cholera, symptoms, ways of treatment, studies of treatments, complications that may occur, the

Of the many diseases spread by insects, none are actually caused by the insects themselves but by other organisms passed on when they feed or bite. Insects are capable of spreading diseases caused by many different types of microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, protozoan and others. Mosquitoes have earned the