Brief outline of the history of world epidemics-pandemics Part II. Cholera nineteenth

Abstract

An epidemic of any infectious disease is an invisible ruthless enemy that cannot be defeated by military, political, economic or ideological means. Humanity always reacts to such threats quite nervously and subconsciously tries to mythologize them, at least a little, in order to somehow psychologically protect itself from the real fear of imminent death. Since there is no rational defense against such a threat, people for the most part react in an irrational manner.The 19th century, almost the same as the previous centuries, «started» in epidemiological terms almost from the very beginning of its calendar. Only in contrast to the previous 18th century, the main and dominant danger was posed by another infectious pathology — cholera.In the history of medicine, over the 19th century, as many as six outbreaks of cholera epidemics were recorded since 1817. The first of them began in East Bengal and lasted 8 years (1817—1824), gradually, covering almost all India and big regions of the Middle East. It was worsened by the traditional travels of both Hindu and Muslim pilgrims to «holy places» who spread Vibrio cholerae on foot and through active communication with local residents.One of the significant reasons why cholera epidemic continued with minimal interruptions for almost the entire nineteenth century was an insufficient level of scientific knowledge in microbiology and the resulting ignorance of the causative agent of cholera — vibrio and its properties.Another factor was a complete lack of understanding by society of the need to observe at least the simplest sanitary standards in everyday life. And there was also misunderstanding among the leadership which tried to limit the next outbreak of cholera mainly by administrative measures without adequate explanations of their essence and necessity to the population.