Historical:
Cholera is a disease that has effected many people in countries like West Africa, Haiti, and other third world countries. Cholera is spread through contaminated water sources that have the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. Another way to transmit the bacteria is through undercook food. As early as 1000 AD Cholera has effected humans. The first known case was in India and then later in the 14thcentury in France. The most noteworthy outbreak was in 1854 in England. This was the outbreak that also led to Dr. John Snow finding a way to stop Cholera and preventing further outbreaks. During this outbreak Dr. Snow looked into the source of the problem. When he recognized that the disease had one thing in common and that was the “Broad Street pump”, he removed the handle to the pump. This led to the disease being prevented in the Broad Street area. Then in the same year that Dr. Snow found a way to prevent Cholera, Filippo Pacini discovered that Cholera was caused by a bacteria and that bacteria was V. cholerae. Since the early 19thcentury there have been 7 Cholera outbreaks that have ravaged the world. Cholera is a simple disease to prevent on paper, although in reality in third world countries or countries that don’t have access to clean water Cholera is rather deadly. In the most recent outbreaks in Yemen and Haiti disasters and conflict have led to the reduction of clean water supplies. People then contracted Cholera and it spread like wild fire. These places that don’t have the infrastructure to have water treatment plants or even the ability to educate their people on the risks of dirty water are contributing to the consistent outbreaks of Cholera. Cholera will continue to spread as long as contaminated food and water are still prevalent. [1]
Modern Society:
Cholera in the 21stcentury has taken its toll just as Cholera in previous centuries. In 2010 an earthquake hit Haiti and caused the entire island to lose power, clean water sources and many other necessary resources. Then in response to the earthquake another destructive event happened, Cholera began to spread throughout the island. Once the CDC found out about the outbreak they jumped into action and responded with doctors, researchers and many other case workers that knew Cholera specifically. The CDC focused on setting up a surveillance system that allowed them to track the disease to its sources and then preventing any continued outbreak. Once this was done they also focused their efforts on training care workers across Haiti to handle the disease on their own once the outbreak was contained. Although as much as the CDC was able to help ultimately Haiti continues to have problems with Cholera because the infrastructure of the country is not modernized enough to separate clean drinking water from sewage in all locations. Until this is fixed Cholera will continue to spread.[2]
[1]https://www.medicinenet.com/cholera/article.htm#how_do_health_care_professionals_diagnose_cholera
[2]https://www.cdc.gov/cholera/haiti/2010-outbreak-response.html