Cholera and its History as a Pandemic

Cholera is caused due to bacterial Vibrio cholera, which has several types that cause more severe diseases than the others. Cholera can affect a person due to infectious or unsafe food and unhealthy water contaminated by bacteria.

But this disease does not appear today, but there was a cholera outbreak in ancient times. It has a history of cholera, where this infectious disease became a worldwide danger to health. 

Hippocrates, a father of modern medicine, an ancient Greek in 400 BCE, mentioned this disease in the evidence of its outbreak. But this disease has been highly influencing the parts of Indian regions.

First Pandemic

During the 19th century, cholera spread worldwide, causing many illnesses and deaths. The original reservoir of cholera is the Ganges delta in Indian territories, and this disease has caused millions of deaths in history. In 1817, cholera spread to a large region in India and then to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Srilanka. Then after three years, there was an outbreak of cholera in the parts of Thailand and the Philippines, where more than 100,000 people suffered from this illness and ended up dying. 

Second Pandemic

The second pandemic outbreak took place in the 19th Century. It spread over North America and Europe in 1826. Cholera affected the health of many people in Russia and spread to Poland and Finland along the trade routes. It is said that the disease spread due to transportation and trade and increased the number of humans. Because of this route, the disease spread to Germany and England. Then in 1832, it greatly affected parts of Canada and America, and more than 4000 people died from this outbreak.

Third Pandemic

The third outbreak of cholera was the deadliest and caused many deaths worldwide in the 19th century. It started in 1852 in India and spread through Europe, Africa, the parts of the middle east and the United States. More than 20,000 people died in Great Britain. In 1854  there was a deadly outbreak in London mentioned by John Snow, an English physician, who proved that the disease was spreading because of contaminated and unhealthy water.

Afterwards Pandemic

The fourth pandemic started in 1863 from India to Spain and Naples. The pandemic in these areas lasted till 1875 and greatly affected the people’s health. After the fourth pandemic in the year 1881, the outbreak of cholera spread in India and then to Europe, South America and parts of Asia and lasted till 1875. Then the other cholera outbreak spread in 1899 as a sixth pandemic which was not as dangerous as the previous outbreak as people had been aware of cholera and its understanding. Still, Egypt, India, Persia, and the Philippines were the regions that hit hardest during the pandemic, with more people having severe health problems, and many of them had died too. There were regions such as Germany 1892 and Naples that were also affected by the spread of this infectious disease.

Symptoms of Cholera

Most vulnerable people who fall prey to the cholera bacterium (Vibrio cholera) don’t become diseased and don’t know they’ve been cholera infected. But because they shed cholera bacteria in their stool for seven to fourteen days, they can still infect others through the touched water by those who have cholera.

Most cases of cholera that cause symptoms cause mild or moderate diarrhoea that’s often hard to tell apart from diarrhoea caused by other problems.

Diarrhoea. Cholera-related diarrhoea happens suddenly and can quickly cause dangerous liquid loss from your body — as much as a quart (about 1 litre) an hour. Diarrhoea, due to cholera, often has a not bright, dully milky appearance that resembles water in which rice has been rinsed. Signs and symptoms of the loss of water due to the cholera condition include irritability, tiredness,  fallen  eyes, a dry mouth, extreme thirst, dry and shrivelled skin that’s slow to return to its original state when pinched into a fold, little or not at all urinating, low blood pressure, and an irregular beating of the heart

Conclusion:

Cholera has caused many severe health problems and even millions of deaths in the history of this pandemic. Cholera infects many health issues in the human body.  But with increasing medical and sanitation development, cholera has become less deadly in some parts of the country. Especially in developing countries where the government has helped establish good drinking water and sanitation practices and has a great medical treatment, cholera is less frequent and does not cause severe problems. Thus cholera spreads over those regions having fewer sanitation practices.