The Epidemic Of Newark 's Past Society

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)

The book “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, written by John M. Barry, covers the progression of the Spanish influenza, especially in the United States. Barry focuses not only on the influenza itself, though, but also on the social influences that allowed the virus to flourish. The book covers how medical practices in the United States had risen up just in time to combat the virus, but, due to societal issues and the war, the doctors struggled in areas where they should have been successful.

This chapter focuses on Malaria. When Quammen began writing this, he was told to not include Malaria because it was not zoonotic but vector- borne. However, Quammen found that the human version of Malaria come from a mosquito biting an infected gorilla, and then biting a human. Since the disease was delivered to a new host, malaria has now become zoonotic and a spillover. I personally find this chapter of the book to be rather intriguing because compared to some of the other diseases in this book such as Hendra or SARS; I would have liked to think that I was rather knowledgeable about Malaria, but that was not the case. I have never heard of Malaria being a Spillover and I found it compelling to read about in this book. The next chapter of this book, “Dinner at the Rat Farm”, is centered on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). In 2003, SARS made its presence known as it rapidly spread globally to places like Canada and the Philippines. SARS’ origin belongs to southern province of China called Guangdong. The SARS outbreak in China was quick and not to be messed with. It ran ravage through communities and

The speed with which the disease was spread in a largely rural and, by modern standards, not densely populated, society; the short interval between infection and death;

The life of living as a poor settler or an immigrant was a problem in the urban life. Most of the immigrants faced poverty that needs to be secured with food, shelter, healthcare, and money. For example, if there were no food for the immigrants to eat, they will starve to death. A shelter was one of the most important things they need because it keeps them securities from harm and it is a cozy place for them to sleep. Another source they need was health care because without medical attention most of them had the disease. The disease like cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid came from bad hygiene which was preventing bad sanitation. The health factor was

Some of the top historical movements that the United States ever encountered were the following: civil rights, women’s suffrage, gay rights, anti war, labor movement, black power, and occupy wall street. But there hasn’t been a major movement or protest that has really shaped and changed the minds of our citizens of this country, to understand that our environment is in a crisis. People are still having the same concept that climate change and global warming isn’t real when in reality it is. Meanwhile, in urban cities throughout America, there are treated like a city that isn’t worthy to be cleaned, unpolluted, or even take into consideration of the people who are currently inhabit these cities and unfortunately Newark falls under that

In American industrial cities, late 1800s, Poor neighborhood were not the best place to live. With poor living conditions, poor sanitation and crowded housing, many epidemics of infectious disease spread into the poor population and touched even the wealthy class. Cities such as New York were crowded and workers were living in tenements, which were often cramped, poorly lit and poorly aerated. Moreover, these tenements lacked of adequate plumbing, therefore waste was flooding in the public streets. Streets was crowded of waste and garbage. Population was poorly nourished and has a poor life hygiene like water pollution and poisoned food and milk. Accordingly, infectious disease was the common death reason. Big cities had known outbreaks of

In the very first chapter, Steven Johnson begins to set the scene of how the overpopulation of London coupled with extreme levels of poverty created the perfect opportunity for Cholera to spread in the rapid manner that it did. On page one it states; “These were the London underclasses, at least a hundred thousand strong. So immense were their numbers that had the scavengers broken off and formed their own city, it would have been the fifth-largest in all of England.” Johnson mentions that the city of London had become a city of Scavengers, consisting of; bone-pickers, pure-finders, dredgermen, sewer-hunters and night-soil men. However, the harshest reflection of the Cholera epidemic of 1854 is conveyed by John Snow himself. On page 59 it states; “The young Snow observed

“All told, seven people were killed, and more than two dozen were injured” (Hunter). This is very unfortunate because it took a tragedy for politicians to stop blaming the “negro” population; however, politicians did not take the blame. Policians portrayed an image of understanding and action when in reality it was a little too late; their neglect resulted in fatal consequences. Housing reform was now the main goal in order to stabilize this crippled community. However, this late housing reform after the tragedy in 1936 led to urban decay of the Seventh Ward; many were migrating out of the Seventh Ward in search for housing elsewhere. Turmoil in the city led to an uninhabitable location, leaving the once booming black Seventh Ward as an abandoned parking lot and a memory of what it once

The tenements where immigrants lived were unacceptably tiny and unsanitary. The East Side was packed at the rate of 290,000 per square mile at one point, while the greatest crowding of Old London was at the rate of 175,816 (12). Due to this overpopulation, diseases spread rapidly and killed thousands of unprotected tenants. Tenements also lacked fresh air because they did not have windows, which contributed to the fast advancement of cholera until around 1869 (14). One of the homes that Riis visited had “half a dozen persons washing, cooking, and sorting rags, lay

epidemics to childhood ills." (6) It was in this form that diseases were carried to

Throughout history many different diseases have infected the world. Such diseases consist of measles, mumps, malaria, typhus and yellow fever. Many of these diseases are caused by different things and originated in different countries.

It often causes massive epidemics of which only the most resilient individuals survive. As natural selection weeds out the most susceptible hosts and the survivors repopulate, what was once a deadly disease becomes a routine childhood illness.

This book follows an esteemed doctor and a local clergyman who, together, are the heart of an investigation to solve the mystery of the cholera epidemic. In 1854 London was ravaged by a terrible outbreak of cholera, where within the span of mere weeks over five hundred people in the Soho district died. London, at the time, was a city of around two and a half million people, all crammed into a small area with no system

When a disease has existed in a community for years, the members of said community develop a natural, inherited defense after some generations. After initial entrance, the disease runs through the population and the more susceptible individuals acquire the disease and die from it. Those individuals "hardy" enough to survive then dominate the gene pool and the disease become less fatal to the remaining population. (Meltzer, 39)