History of Cholera

Cholera is a serious disease which can cause diarrhea, vomiting, and severe dehydration. If left untreated, cholera is often fatal. Cholera has affected human health for hundreds of years and continues to be fatal even today.

The First Cholera Pandemic occurred from 1817 to 1824. Originating from contaminated rice in the Ganges Delta of south eastern India, it spread through trade routes to Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, China, and the Philippines. Through British troops fighting on the northern borders of India it was also brought to Afghanistan and Nepal. On a single island of Indonesia it killed 100,000 people alone. Hundreds of thousands of people died during this pandemic. It is believed that due to a harsh winter in 1824 the disease died out. In the map below the orange star depicts the origin and the bold red are the boundaries of countries that were affected.

Some believe the second pandemic of cholera originated as reminants of the first. Also stemming from India, the disease spread North to China and Russia and eventually affected European countries such as Finland, Hungary, Germany, Poland and England. After several years the disease also spread to Canada and America. Due to mass misinformation about the spread of Cholera people began to think that doctors were purposely giving the disease. This led to the Cholera Riots of Liverpool. In the map below, the orange star depicts the origin and the bold red are the boundaries of countries that were affected.

Again emerging from India, the Third Cholera Pandemic is considered the most deadly. Famously in 1854 in London, the father of modern epidimiology, John Snow, created a map documenting all the deaths in Soho due to Cholera and the surrounding waterpumps of the area. Eventually he was able to pinpoint the source of Cholera to a specific water pump, causing its removal -saving hundreds of lives. This is one of the first times mapping has been used to track disease. Below you can view John Snow's original map and a lovely portrait of John Snow himself.

Two men are credited for having discovered the microbe that causes cholera - Vibrio Cholerae. Originally it was isolated by Filippo Pacini in 1854, though it was not well known until Robert Koch brought attention to the disease many years later. It is a gram negative bacteria found in dirty brackish water.

Below you can see maps of the Fourth and Fifth Cholera Pandemic. Click the features below to find out more information.

During World War I, the threat and fear of cholera spreading among the troops was very real. The war took place right in the middle of the 6th cholera pandemic, and forced soldiers into close proximities with filthy conditions. Despite these factors, though, cholera was relatively rare in the military. There were a couple of cases reported, but the numbers were shockingly low and there were very few fatalities.

Other places were not so lucky. Like all previous pandemics it orginated in India where it killed 800,000 people. It's spread continued on to the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia.

Dorman, Matthew J., Kane, Leanne, et. al. (2019). "The history, genome and biology of NCTC 30: a non-pandemic Vibrio cholerae isolate from World War One". 286, 1900, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 21 March 2019.

“General Information.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 May 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/cholera/general/index.html.

“Global Epidemics and Impact of Cholera.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 1 Dec. 2010, https://www.who.int/topics/cholera/impact/en/.

History.com Editors. “Cholera.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Sept. 2017,  https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/history-of-cholera .

Hu, Dalong, et al. “Origins of the Current Seventh Cholera Pandemic.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 29 Nov. 2016, https://www.pnas.org/content/113/48/E7730.

Waldman, Ronald, and Mariam Claeson. “Cholera through History.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 9 Aug. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/science/cholera/Cholera-through-history.