Desiree Alaquinez
Theme #8
HiST 1301
Mr. Myers
Cholera
Cholera is a deadly infection that occurs in the small intestine; which is caused by the bacterium vibrio cholera. The disease is most commonly found in places that are very crowded, war affiliated, extremely low scarcity of food, and especially if a place is poorly sanitized. Africa, South Asia, and Latin America are just some parts of the world that come across this deadly disease.
Cholera first originated and made its appearance in India in 1817 at the Ganges River; which then later spread too many other regions due to neglected transported bilge of water. It was not until 1883, that this disease was discovered by German bacteriologist Robert Koch. Koch noticed the epidemic of this unusual rare disease and decided to take a closer look into the situation. He then realized that some sort of bacterium was in the intestines of the dead; but he was shocked to know that he was unable to neither isolate the organisms nor infect other animals with it. Later Koch went to India and made a surprising discovery-the cholera disease was started from damp dirty linen that the bacteria grew in, earth’s misty air, and bunch of bacteria that was in patient’s stools.
The most common sources that cause cholera is standing water, type o blood, poor sanitation, eating raw seafood especially shellfish-because it originates from the same locations that have been exposed to cholera, consuming raw vegetables or fruit, and grain such as millet and rice. So nonetheless, Cholera is also found in water or food that has been contaminated by a person’s feces that has been infected with this dangerous disease. You cannot catch cholera just by having contact with someone that is sick.
Those who become exposed to cholera didn’t become ill very quickly and show symptoms right away. In fact, many never knew they had become infected until two weeks after the incident. Yes, most cases had symptoms of diarrhea but it was very mild that it became very hard for anyone to notice that there was a problem going on with their body. There are also other symptom’s that occur with this disease such as dehydration, nausea, vomiting, and if you have electrolyte imbalance. However, if cholera occurs in children they may experience fever, convulsions, and even go into a coma.
Although, cholera can be a life-threatening disease it can also be prevented if proper sanitation practices are followed. For instance,
Some measurements that people took to prevent getting the disease was using bottled or boiled disinfected water to wash fruits and vegetables, drink from, wash their hands and face with, and wash dishes with to prepare food. This helped a lot when it came down to decreasing the odds of everyone catch cholera.
New York was a festering ground for cholera because at the time this disease was transmitting place to place; New York was the largest, filthiest place that was crowded by tons of civilians as well as horses and scavenging pigs that contributed to the so called “messiness” of the poor environment and dirty streets. The air as well started to smell horrible due to mixture of local tanneries, and slaughterhouses. Cholera was not the only disease New York attracted many other illnesses occurred due to yellow fever and malaria.
In today’s world there is actually an event occurring due to cholera and it is taking place in Haiti; it is the worst epidemic in recent history. The tragic event has been happening for a little over three years off and on. In October 2010- March 2011 Haiti experienced this disease which killed 4,672 people. On December 12, 2012 cholera killed 40 per week. Today cholera has killed 8, 217 people.