CHOLERA EPIDEMIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC REASONS OF THEIR DISTRIBUTION IN THE XIX CENTURY ACCORDING TO TAMBOV PROVINCE

Abstract

The article examines the poorly studied topic of the influence of socio-economic causes on the occurrence and spread of mass infectious diseases on the example of cholera epidemics. The geographical scope of the study is limited to the territory of the Tambov province, as a typically agrarian with a predominantly rural population. Statistical materials presented by various collections on public health and medical services, as well as reviews of the Tambov province and reports of the Tambov City Council were taken as the main sources. A comprehensive analysis of the sources was carried out using both traditional scientific methods of research (system analysis, retrospective method, method of historicism, etc.) and modern methods, for example, the method of mathematical statistics. In the course of the work, the characteristics of the healthcare system of the studied region were given and the main factors that negatively affected the spread of cholera epidemics during the study period were identified. The author established a connection between the sanitary and hygienic situation and the spread of infections in rural and urban settlements of the Tambov province. As the main conclusion of the study, the author points to a combination of two main factors that negatively affected the sanitary situation in the province. This is a low level of literacy and cultural evelopment of the population combined with economic insecurity. With a shortage of doctors and unsettled zemstvo medical care, these factors contributed to the rapid spread of epidemics in the region.