Hand bill from the New York City Board of Health, 1832. The outdated public health advice demonstrates the lack of understanding of the disease and its actual causative factors.
Seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817. The seventh cholera pandemic is officially a current pandemic and has been ongoing since 1961, according to a World Health Organization factsheet in March 2022.[1] Additionally, there have been many documented major local cholera outbreaks, such as a 1991–1994 outbreak in South America and, more recently, the 2016–2021 Yemen cholera outbreak.[2]
Although much is known about the mechanisms behind the spread of cholera, this has not led to a full understanding of what makes cholera outbreaks happen in some places and not others. Lack of treatment of human feces and lack of treatment of drinking water greatly facilitate its spread. Bodies of water have been found to serve as a reservoir, and seafood shipped long distances can spread the disease.
Between 1816 and 1923, the first six cholera pandemics occurred consecutively and continuously over time. Increased commerce, migration, and pilgrimage are credited for its transmission.[3] Late in this period (particularly 1879–1883), major scientific breakthroughs toward the treatment of cholera develop: the first immunization by Pasteur, the development of the first cholera vaccine, and identification of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae by Filippo Pacini and Robert Koch. After a long hiatus, a seventh cholera pandemic spread in 1961. The pandemic subsided in the 1970s, but continued on a smaller scale. Outbreaks occur across the developing world to the current day. Epidemics occurred after wars, civil unrest, or natural disasters, when water and food supplies had become contaminated with Vibrio cholerae, and also due to crowded living conditions and poor sanitation.[4]
Deaths in India between 1817 and 1860 in the first three pandemics of the nineteenth century, are estimated to have exceeded 15 million people. Another 23 million died between 1865 and 1917, during the next three pandemics. Cholera deaths in the Russian Empire during a similar time period exceeded 2 million.[5]
^Cite error: The named reference WHO was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Crisis in Yemen Archived March 9, 2019, at the Wayback Machine"
^Tatem A, Rogers D, Hay S (2006). "Global Transport Networks and Infectious Disease Spread". Adv Parasitol. Advances in Parasitology. 62. National Institutes of Health: 293–343. doi:10.1016/S0065-308X(05)62009-X. ISBN 9780120317622. PMC 3145127. PMID 16647974.
^Handa S (February 16, 2016). "Cholera: Background". Medscape. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
^Beardsley GW (2000). "The 1832 Cholera Epidemic in New York State: 19th Century Responses to Cholerae Vibrio (part 1)". The Early America Review. 3 (2). Archived from the original on 2010-05-02. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
and 23 Related for: History of cholera information
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