Reexamination of an outbreak after forty-seven years: Key lessons from the Sagmalcılar outbreak, 1970

Abstract

In October of 1970, approximately 1,500 people were ill and 52 people died of a cholera outbreak in Sagmalcilar, Istanbul. The outbreak spread over a wide area, carried through the old waterways passing under the garbage-laden areas near the Habipler village and the open waterways in the region of Esenler, Sagmalcilar. The spread of the disease was stopped at the end of October. During this outbreak, all patients were followed up, isolated and treated by the local healthcare workers. A wide range of immunization studies were conducted and water resources and open water zones were chlorinated. The sale of unbottled water, soft drinks and ice in the region was forbidden, and the dead, as well as cemetery grounds were limed. The houses where outbreaks had occurred were marked with yellow papers. In this study, periodical newspapers, related works and official reports of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey were used as resources. In this article, valuable lessons from the Sagmalcilar outbreak were presented and discussed through an analysis of the studies conducted during this epidemic.