It was once the most terrifying infectious disease in the world. No fewer than .1 million people died from it every year. It was " cholera ". The word "cholera" is very unfamiliar to today's young people. In fact, this is very normal, because even your parents may be very unfamiliar with cholera.
What is cholera?
First of all, the period when cholera was raging was relatively early in the 19th century , and although cholera existed in China, there was no large-scale outbreak, so its popularity in the country is far less than that of smallpox and SARS. But cholera is no less terrifying than other infectious diseases. In 1817, there was the first outbreak of cholera.
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Mainly concentrated in South Asia, where the infection situation in India is very serious. The death toll caused by cholera is as high as 38 million , which shows its horrific extent. The full name of cholera is "cholera acute diarrheal infectious disease". As the name says, people infected with cholera will suffer from severe diarrhea.
This kind of diarrhea is caused by a bacteria called " Vibrio cholerae ". This bacteria will appear in contaminated water, especially water contaminated by feces. Once you are accidentally infected with cholera, symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting will appear, as the diarrhea and vomiting progress.
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The human body will lose electrolytes, inorganic salts and water, which will cause blood pressure to drop and muscle spasm . If not treated in time, dehydration and shock will occur. Some of these cases are so serious that they can even lead to death from dehydration in just a few hours.
It is not difficult to see from the occurrence of cholera that the sanitation of water sources could not be guaranteed at that time, which caused this bacterial infection. However, what country’s water source sanitation is so poor, and how did cholera that broke out in South Asia spread to Western countries?
Cholera Outbreak
Speaking of the outbreak and spread of cholera, we cannot mention the two countries that took advantage of it, one is India and the other is the United Kingdom. First, let’s talk about the outbreak of cholera. The first outbreak of cholera was in South Asia..
Especially in India at that time, India had a very special tradition of throwing all excrement and corpses into the Ganges River. It was precisely this behavior that made the Ganges water more and more polluted, leading to the emergence of cholera infection. And these people infected with cholera still dumped their excrement into the Ganges.
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This has intensified the spread of cholera, because Vibrio cholerae is more likely to appear in water contaminated by the excrement of infected people, so India has been in a vicious cycle without knowing it. According to later statistics, more than 38 million people died from cholera.
Then another victim appeared, and that was the United Kingdom. India used to be a British colony, so cholera followed British cargo ships and came to the United Kingdom. In addition to the United Kingdom, cholera also spread to China and Japan. However, the cold weather of 1823 stopped the spread of cholera.
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But this was only the first cholera outbreak. Then came in 1826, and the second cholera outbreak. At this time, cholera had spread directly to Ireland , which caused great damage to Ireland. Damage, nearly 10% of the population died due to cholera. This caused people in Ireland to flee to the United States.
Such behavior brought cholera to the United States, where nearly ten thousand people died from cholera. Time came to 1846 . This was the third outbreak of cholera. This time, the starting point of cholera still started from the Ganges River. This outbreak was also the darkest time in Britain, and countless British people died of cholera.
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However, hope will slowly be born in despair. During the third outbreak of cholera, doctors have discovered that the source of infection is water, and in each subsequent cholera outbreak, people continued to Improved water source management also identified the culprit of cholera. In fact, starting from 1961 , it has been the seventh outbreak of cholera until now.
People have also been fighting against cholera. However, although cholera is terrible, as long as we prevent it properly, we can stay away from this infectious disease. So what should we do?
How to prevent
You may not believe it, but although most young people do not know what cholera is, cholera is still rampant. According to statistics, more than 12 million people are infected with cholera every year in the world, and about 100,000 of them die.
Cholera's attack on our country was also very serious. In 1932, cholera attacked most areas of our country, with more than 100,000 people infected, and the number of deaths reached a terrifying 34,000 people. However, at that time, the world already had some relatively effective methods for preventing and controlling cholera.
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and in 1961 to 2011, our country was attacked by cholera again. This time, the number of people infected was as high as 340,000, and the number of deaths also reached 5,000. After this cholera outbreak, our country also began to vigorously develop its own sewage treatment system. Until modern times, the mortality rate of cholera was basically zero.
Although cholera is very scary, just like the messenger of death, as long as we prevent and control it properly, we can avoid cholera well. First of all, we must have a correct understanding of cholera. Cholera is classified as a Class A infectious disease in my country. The same Class A infectious disease is plague.
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Second, the cause of cholera is infection by Vibrio cholerae. There are two ways to become infected. The first is coming into contact with relatively unclean water sources, food and utensils; the second is coming into contact with things that cholera patients have come into contact with. And everyone is potentially infected.
Third, if you find that you have diarrhea and vomiting at the same time, you should pay attention and go to the hospital for examination in time. Fourth, you can choose to inject cholera vaccine. Fifth, although cholera is highly contagious, it is not difficult to recover if detected and treated in time.
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Last point, pay attention to personal food hygiene, wash hands frequently, do not drink raw water, and do not eat food from unknown sources. As long as you keep the above points in mind, cholera is actually not that terrible.
