Dear Ron,
As a matter of fact it was. In 1849, an English physician named John
Snow traced the source of an outbreak of cholera in London to a
contaminated water pump. He had the handle removed, and the disease went
into decline. I think that case is mentioned in the film I previously
described, but I'll have to dig it up and look. Good memory!
Joe Roberts
On 7 Jan 1997, Ron Gerth wrote:
> Wasn't one of the classic teaching studies used in epi classes a cholera
> outbreak in London? I think I remember (it's been awhile) seeing a map
> with several water sources flagged on a map of London with the locations
> of households that had sick/dead people. The clusters were clearly
> visible around a couple of the sources and not around the others.
>> Like I said it has been a while since I looked at the stuff but I am
> pretty sure that it was cholera and it was very early on.
>> ********************************************************************************
>> Ronald Gerth The University of Iowa
> Public Health Microbiologist Hygienic Laboratory
> Internet: rgerth at uhl.uiowa.edu> Phone: (319) 335 4500 Fax: (319) 335 4555
>> ********************************************************************************
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: 7 Jan 1997 06:23:40 -0800
> From: Karl Roberts <kr1 at pgstumail.pg.cc.md.us>
> To: microbio at net.bio.net> Subject: Re: Cholera - how old?
>> Dear Lars,
> Cholera, like many of the communicable infectious diseases, has
> been present ever since man began to form community structures. Remeber,
> this vibrio disease is generally spread via sewage-contaminated water, so
> anywhere people congregate and utilize untreated water supplies, the
> possibility of an outbreak of this disease exists. It was definately a
> scourge in the middle ages, though it is unlikely that it was commonly
> reported- remember, people believed then and for many years after that
> life could arise spontaneously, and that disease could result from such
> varied circumstances as witchery, bad blood, and the breathing in of
> miasmas (which, by the way, is probably how malaria got its name). Though I
> don't remember the exact year this came out, the BBC produced a marvelous
> series of videos entitled "Plagues" which would be of interest to you.
> You can be quite certain that cholera was one of the major reported
> plagues of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. I hope this helps.
> Joe Roberts
> Prince George's Community College
>> On Tue, 7 Jan 1997, Lars Andrup wrote:
>> > Dear Bionet.Microbiology
> > I'm writing an article (popular science)on microbiology and I would like
> > to mention some of the pests of the middle ages. And my question is: is
> > cholera that old in Europe?
> >
> > Yours
> >
> > Lars
> > --
> > *********** ooo O ooo ***********
> > Lars Andrup, senior scientist
> > Natl. Inst. of Occupational Health, Denmark
> > tlf.:+45 3929-9711 fax: +45 3927 0107
> > *********** ooo O ooo ***********
> >
>>
