Cholera is caused by contaminated water, and is very easily spread throughout the water supply. The disease is extremely deadly and so severe that victims could die of dehydration within 24 hours of transmission. Cholera usually rises to epidemic proportions in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (India and Bangladesh). There has been seven pandemics of Cholera in the past two hundred years.

The disease is caused by the Vibrio cholerae, which is a gram-negative comma-shaped bacillus. There are more than 200 different types of V. cholerae, and only two are known to be pathogenic to humans. Early documentation of the disease has been clearly shown as early as the 16th century in India, but there were also reports of a disease resembling it as far back as 400 BCE.

As stated above the disease is very easy to transmit because it is a waterborne bacteria. The disease is mainly transmitted through water that has fecal matter in it. Because of this, anywhere that doesn’t have clean, treated water is susceptible to the cholera bacteria. Over the past two centuries there have been seven major pandemics of cholera throughout the world. All of these pandemics have come from poor areas of the world or poor parts of cities which is why it is associated with poverty and certain communities of poor people, for example the Irish.

There were many factors that led to the bacteria not spreading to developed countries. One of the factors was that there was just an overall better understanding of disease, and bacteria. People in developed countries were much more careful about what they touched or ate for fear of being infected. One scientist that started to help the world gain an understanding was Dr. John Snow. In 1854 he studied cholera transmission during an outbreak close to his home in the Soho district of London. Snow was the first person to say that cholera was not transmitted by miasma’s but by water related contamination. One thing that helped Snow gain recognition for the germ theory was when Henry Whitehead, who had been a supporter of the miasma theory, backed Snow’s conclusion of how cholera was actually spread. Because of Snow, science, cities, and the modern world were changed. Another notable researcher of the cholera bacteria was Filippo Pacini. Pacini was an Italia researcher who found the cholera bacteria at the same time the Snow did, but his work did not gain prominence until 82 years after his death.

Finally Robert Koch came along. Koch was able to find and observe the bacteria causing cholera at the same time the all the other researchers where looking for it. While every other scientist was trying to fight those believing in miasma’s Koch was able to identify the bacteria and name it, Vibrio Cholerae. In 1905 Koch received the Nobel Prize for medicine. He studied dead bodies that had died of cholera disease in Egypt in 1883. he reasoned that bacteria was the main cause of disease.

The major impact or effect that cholera has had on the world is that today there is a much greater stress on having clean water. The disease is the poor persons disease in that it is not found in developed countries. There is very little worry from normal american’s that what they are drinking or the food that they are eating is going to give them severe diarrhea or major dehydration. The major thing that cholera did for the world though, was it brought about the idea of germ theory. It took the work of many scientists to finally beat the idea that diseases were caused by miasma’s, but with the discovery of the bacteria that caused cholera there was a much greater understanding of what bacteria is and how it can negatively affect you. This is one if the main reasons why Bear Grylls and other survivalists state that you must boil your water before you drink it, if it comes from the ground. Because boiling the water will kill any parasites or bacteria that may be hiding in it.