John Camarella
Artifact #7
Cholera is a water/food-borne disease that can survive very easily in streams. It is salt tolerant so natural variations in acidity of water have little effect on the disease. It is transmitted through the oral-fecal route by feces contaminating the water supply in which food is grown and cooked (Powerpoint Slides). Raw sewage can also be a transmission source for the disease due to the fecal matter being present (Powerpoint Slides). Before the understanding of bacteria and viruses and the impacts that they could have on close populations of people, designated areas to dispose of human waste did not exist. Many cities that were considered modern would dump their sewage right out into the streets where food was sold and water pumped. Another common practice during a war was that there were no latrines that were designated. Soldiers would believe themselves near a water source, like a river, without proper distancing to avoid the contamination of the water. As stated above, the contamination can spread down the river where other soldiers may be using the river as a bathing area, washing station, or even gathering water for consumption. Due to its ability to survive cooking and can exist on items (clothes, food, etc), this made the disease extremely contagious and can become rather hard to fight without knowledge of what was going on.
Today, in developed countries there is sewage lines and regulations that govern exactly how sewage and water should be treated. People that go out in the woods carry with them filters or iodine tabs that can be used to treat water and get rid of any disease that could be lingering. Also, medical readiness helps identify when such issues arise and can quickly give aid to those that are affected, leading to possible investigations into what conditions caused the outbreak.
Individuals like Dr. John Snow helped the old world of medicine progress from the idea that bad air caused sickness. In the case of cholera, this was somewhat right due to the fact that most conditions that cholera exists would have rotting food, poor sanitation, and exposed fecal matter. Yet, Dr. Snow was able to point out that disease could exist in areas that did not have a smell. By plotting points of an explosion of cholera near his home in London, he was able to pinpoint a possible cause of the spreading sickness. The water pump that everyone had been using was exposed to contamination from fecal matter that could easily get into the system. What seemed like safe and clean water would turn out to be the center of the issue (Powerpoint Slides).
Henry Whitehead, a Priest in the Soho district where Dr. Snow was investigating at first did not believe in the contaminated water theory that Dr. Snow had been suggesting. Over time, he became convinced through his research that Dr. Snow was correct and would eventually lead to helping him correctly pinpoint the cause of infection. Whitehead, unlike Dr. Snow, was extremely connected to the community around him. He knew which families were getting sick and what their activities had been leading up to the disease. This allowed Dr. Snow to move freely through the community and gather as much data without having to bargain his way into homes (Powerpoint Slide).
In the modern era, Cholera that was not originally in Haiti has now become endemic. The extremely poor country that was already an unsanitary and disease-ridden island was left in shambles after a powerful earthquake struck. During the short time after the earthquake, the strain of cholera made its way into the Artibonite River which is the main supply of drinking water (Powerpoint Slides). Without the strain being domestic to the area, it quickly spread throughout devastated Haiti causing a couple thousand deaths and widespread cases. With little health infrastructure and poor sanitary conditions which is epitomized by the capital itself being the largest city in the world without running water and sewer lines (Powerpoint Slides). This lead to an extremely easy contamination cycle that would move unimpeded by any sort of health awareness. In order to prevent this from becoming an epidemic again, health workers have begun by giving temporary vaccines through a drop bottle in order to boost herd immunity. With little hope for improvements in living conditions in the near future, this is possibly the best hope that the Haitians have in order to survive (Powerpoint Slides).