Cholera

Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholera (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/cholera/general/). Number of researches has been conducted and it has concluded that thousands of people are infected around the world. For more than two centuries, cholera has evaded some of the top scientist and still remains a threat to the world populations. A major cholera epidemic began in India in 1817, from India the disease spread to Russia, appearing at rapid speed and crossing all across the continent. Cholera is believed to originate in 1817 at the Ganges River in India and then later spread to other areas and regions due to poor removal of water mainly from British ships.

Cholera is not particularly easy to catch. Although the microorganisms must have been plentiful during the nineteenth-century epidemics, many people probably ingested them without harm, for human stomach acids often kill the organisms before they reach the intestines where the trouble starts.

As the western world expand many people became ill with cholera because of overcrowding in living space, in some cities overcrowding often involved quarters below street level, where water was constantly seeping in the living area. In many Latin and African country the cholera virus is more common because of poor hygiene, poor sanitation and lack of education on public health. In an outbreak, the source of the contamination is usually the feces of an infected person that contaminates water or food. The disease can spread like wild fire in areas with poor treatment of sewage and drinking water. In Europe in the 1800s many people became infected with cholera because there water drawn from the nearby streams and rive...

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...ury, one that moreover focused attention on the environmental evils of early industrial urbanization but it has been used to divert the attention from the carriers of the disease, the immigrants who travel to the U.S. daily. Travelers are advice to take caution when they areas visiting country’s with epidemic cholera (for example, parts of Africa, Asia, or Latin America) may be exposed to the cholera bacterium. Many case of cholera have been caused by contaminated seafood brought into the U.S. by travelers who have visited some of the listed countries above. Researchers are working very hard to find a way to stop the spread of cholera and make the public aware of the spread and harmful effects of being contaminated with cholera. It is imperative that everyone around the world have adequate sanitation and access to clean water so we can combat this horrific disease.