Cholera is a disgusting virus that attacks the digestive system of a human. It more or less stops the solidification process of waste in the intestine system. This bacteria also doesn’t let human beings keep any liquids it needs to stay hydrated in their body. Without treatment, someone can die within one to two day. One of the main ways this virus spreads is through water contamination. In many third world countries. this is a problem. People not having running water toilets to move waste and defecate in the river which spreads the disease when people get water, and people not washing their hands before a meal can also spread the disease to food. This led to the widespread outbreak of cholera in places like India.
After an outbreak or two, scientists started realizing this disease was being caused by germ theory, something Robert Koch had thought of around the third outbreak of cholera. This allowed them to think up a plan to use things like chlorine and other substances to clean water, and built toilets far away from rivers and other sources of water. This helped to slow the spread of cholera significantly. Scientists also found the best way to help treat this disease was through oral tablets designed to quickly rehydrate someone, and this stopped cholera from killing its victims.
Today, there are still places where cholera outbreaks happen, but it is less common than ever before, however, there is still one endemic case in Haiti. Several factors like the major earthquake which destroyed the little infrastructure Haiti had, led to the spread of the disease due to things like lack or toilets and a lack of running water to wash someone’s hands. Today, there are still thousands of cases a month of cholera in Haiti, and though numbers have decreased, it still seems to be relatively endemic in this country.
Works Cited:
-Weppelmann, Alex, et al. “Has Haiti’s Cholera Epidemic Become a Permanent Problem?” The Conversation, The Conversation, 23 July 2018, theconversation.com/has-haitis-cholera-epidemic-become-a-permanent-problem-55790.
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