1817–1824 cholera pandemic
First cholera pandemic | |
---|---|
Disease | Cholera |
Bacteria strain | Vibrio cholerae |
Location | South Asia, South-East Asia, Middle East |
First outbreak | Calcutta, British India |
Dates | 1817–1824 |
Deaths | Unknown; 1–2 million in British India, 200,000 in Vietnam, 100,000 in Java, 100,000 in Korea, 30,000 in Bangkok, 18,000 in Basra, 750,000-800,000 in China and Japan |
The first cholera pandemic (1817–1824), also known as the first Asiatic cholera pandemic or Asiatic cholera, began near the city of
Origin and initial spread
The name cholera had been used in previous centuries to describe illnesses involving nausea and vomiting.[3] Today, cholera specifically describes illness caused by the Vibrio cholerae bacteria.[4] There are numerous examples of epidemics prior to 1817 which are suspected as being cholera.[4] In the sixth century BCE cholera-like symptoms were described by an Indian text.[4] Indeed, descriptions of a disease in India from as far back as 2,500 years ago describe an illness reminiscent of cholera.[5] Greek physician Hippocrates wrote about an illness resembling cholera about 2,400 years ago, as did Roman physician Galen roughly 500 years later in the 2nd century.[5] In the 16th century, an outbreak of acute diarrhea was reported to have occurred in the East Indies by the Dutch.[4] A similar outbreak was recorded in 1669 in China.[4]
But, there is not evidence of "true Asiatic Cholera" prior to 1781, in which the first well-documented epidemic occurred.
Spread beyond India
After spreading beyond India, the first cholera pandemic hit other parts of Asia and the African coast the hardest.
When the epidemic reached Russia and specifically Astrakhan, their response was to formulate an anti-Cholera program in 1823.[8] This program was headed by a German physician by the name of Dr. Rehmann.[8] The Anti-Cholera program inspired the creation of a medical-administration board by Tsar Alexander I that inspired similar medical administration across Europe.[8]
In 1824, transmission of the disease ended. Some researchers believe that may have been due to the cold winter of 1823–1824, which would have killed the bacteria in the water supplies.[1]
The spread of the first cholera pandemic was closely linked to warfare and trade.[4] According to economic history professor Donato Gómez-Diaz, "[advances] in commercial exchange and navigation contributed to cholera’s dispersion."[5] Navy and merchant ships carried people with the disease to the shores of the Indian Ocean, from Africa to Indonesia, and north to China and Japan.[9] During the Ottoman-Persian War of 1821–1823, cholera would affect both armies in what is modern-day Armenia.[4] Hindu pilgrims spread cholera within the subcontinent, as had happened many times previously, and British troops carried it overland to Nepal and Afghanistan. In 1821, British troops spread cholera to Oman after becoming infected with it in India.[4]
Total deaths
The total deaths from the epidemic remain unknown. Scholars of particular areas have estimated death tolls. For instance, some estimate that Bangkok might have suffered 30,000 deaths from the disease. In Semarang, Central Java, 1,225 people died in eleven days in April 1821.[1] In total, over 100,000 people died as a result of cholera on Java during the first pandemic.[10] Also in 1821, Basra, Iraq saw 18,000 deaths in less than a month's time.[10] In the same year, it is estimated that up to 100,000 deaths occurred in Korea.[5] Vietnamese royal archives recorded 206,835 people died from the disease.[11] In the southwest of the Mekong Delta, the outbreak swept through the constructing Vĩnh Tế Canal, killing thousand of workers (most of them Cambodians) and triggered a Cambodian uprising in later that year.[12] The well-known novelist Nguyễn Du died contracting the disease.[13]
As for India, the initially reported mortality rate was estimated to be 1.25 million per year, placing the death toll at around 8,750,000.[14] However, this report was certainly an overestimation as David Arnold writes: "The death toll in 1817–21 was undoubtedly great, but there is no evidence to suggest that it was as uniformly high as Moreau de Jonnès presumed. [...] Statistics collected by James Jameson for the Bengal Medical Board showed mortality in excess of 10,000 in several districts. [...] Although reporting was sketchy, for the Madras districts as a whole the mortality during the height of the epidemic appears to have been around 11 to 12 per 1,000. If this figure were applied to the whole of India, with a population of some 120–150 million, the total number of deaths would have been no more than one or two million."[15]
Racism and xenophobia
According to historian Samuel Kohn, in
Years after 1824
In the years after the pandemic subsided in many areas of the world, there were still small outbreaks, and pockets of cholera remained.
See also
- Cholera outbreaks and pandemics
- Persecution of Jews during the Black Death
References
- ^ ISBN 1-85109-658-2.
- ^ "Cholera's seven pandemics". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. December 2, 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
The first known pandemic of cholera originated in the Ganges River delta in India. The disease broke out near Calcutta and spread through the rest of the country. By the early 1820s, colonization and trade had carried the disease to Southeast Asia, central Asia, the Middle East, eastern Africa, and the Mediterranean coast. The death toll from this outbreak is not known, but based on the 10,000 recorded deaths among British troops, researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands across India succumbed to the disease. In 1820, 100,000 people died on the Indonesian island of Java alone. By 1823, cholera had disappeared from most of the world, except around the Bay of Bengal.
- ^ PMID 327479.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Echenberg, Myron (2011). Africa in the Time of Cholera: A History of Pandemics from 1817 to the Present. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b c d Gómez-Diaz, Donato (2008). Cholera Pandemics, 1816–1861. Greenwood Press.
- ^ Dhiman Barua, William B. Greenough III, Cholera. p. 6
- ^ Susan R. Holman, Beholden: Religion, Global Health, and Human Rights. p. 37
- ^ JSTOR 44446659.
- ^ McNeill, William H., Plagues and People, p. 268.
- ^ a b "Cholera – Cholera through history". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- ^ Nguyen, Duy Thien (2008). Migration and Change in the Way of Life: An Anthropological Introduction to the Vietnamese Community in Laos. University of Michigan: Thế Giới Publishers. p. 45.
- ^ Biggs, David Andrew; Cronon, William (2012). Quagmire: Nation-Building and Nature in the Mekong Delta. University of Washington Press. p. 67.
- ^ "Gần 70 trận dịch bệnh ở Việt Nam thế kỷ 19, thi hào Nguyễn Du qua đời vì dịch". Tuoitre.vn (in Vietnamese). Tuổi Trẻ. 29 February 2020.
Thi hào Nguyễn Du chết trong trận dịch này
- ^ Moreau de Jonnès, Alexandre (1831). Rapport au Conseil Supérieur de Santé sur le choléra-morbus pestilentiel ... (in French). University of Lausanne: Chez les Frères Reycend et Comp. pp. 75–76.
- ISBN 978-0-520-08295-3.
- ^ PMID 25960572.
- ^ a b Hamlin, Christopher (2009). Cholera: The Biography. Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Anti-Asian Racism in the 1817 Cholera Pandemic". JSTOR Daily. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
- S2CID 24728287.
- S2CID 162990691.
- ^ a b "Cholera: Background, Pathophysiology, Etiology". 2019-11-13.
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External links
- "Cholera – biological weapons", Weapons of mass destruction, Global security.