Cholera

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Recommended: An essay on cholera outbreak

Disease is worldwide. Some, unfortunately, may continue to be a problem for decades or centuries to come. Cholera is one disease that continues to disrupt parts of the world. Cholera is death by diarrhea (Symington, 2011). It is a potentially severe disease that affects the digestive system, leading to extreme dehydration with the possibility of death within hours (Symington, 2011). The culprit responsible for this particular plague is the bacteria Vibrios cholerae (Kraft, 2010).
Symptoms of cholera have been traced as far back as ancient Greek times and Sanskrit writings (Pukatzki & Provenzano, 2013). Between 1817 and 1961 there have been seven pandemic outbreaks that killed millions of people (Cable News Network, 2013.). In the mid-1800’s, Physician, John Snow, questioned the widely-held belief that the cause of cholera came from the inhalation of ‘bad air’, also known as miasma (Symington, 2011). He suggested that the cause was actually due to ingestion of a poisonous substance and he proved this theory in 1854 when he discovered that water from a pump contained diseased particles which launched the London cholera outbreak (Symington, 2011). When the water pump was removed, the London cases of cholera declined significantly (Symington, 2011). Snow, however, never established the bacterial source of cholera; he merely identified the mode of London’s transmission which played a significant role in itself (Symington, 2011). It is Robert Koch that is accredited with discovering the bacteria in 1882 and because of his past scientific work and findings, his observations of V. cholera were extensively accepted even though the first descriptions of the bacteria were made by Italian anatomist Fillipo Pacini almost thirty years prior t...

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...d thoroughly and eat it hot, peel fruits and vegetables, do not defecate in bodies of water, and safely clean up (Center for Disease Control, n.d). When traveling to countries where cholera is present, extreme caution should be taken with food, drink and hygiene (Symington, 2011). Although rare in the United States, more than 90 percent of U.S. cases are a result of foreign travel (Todar, n.d.).
There are essential means of controlling cholera but obviously most are not feasible in the underdeveloped parts of the world (Finkelstein, 1996). Time will tell if the use of the WHO’s stockpiled vaccines will work in Sudan and in turn, benefit the world. Is V. cholera the real culprit? There’s the problem of man and nature playing a role in cholera. Let’s eliminate war, conflict and natural disasters, and then there may be a greater chance of eliminating this disease.

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