John Snow Cholera Outbreak

In 1854, a Cholera outbreak spread throughout the SOHO district in England. There were around five-hundred fatal attacks within a ten day span. Researchers such as Dr. Smith and Henry Whitehead gave unsupported or vague evidential assumptions that the water pump was the source of the outbreak. John Snow had a different way of thinking and proved that extensive analysis is the key to finding a correct answer. He is considered to be one of the founders of epidemiology for finding the source of the outbreak in SOHO. Earlier, it was thought that Cholera was airborne, but Snow had a different theory. He published his ideas in an essay 'On the Mode of Communication of Cholera' in 1849. When the Cholera outbreak occurred in 1854, he was able to prove his theory with

The host is essential the “who”, the agent is the “what” and the environment is the “where”. The host is an organism, usually a human or animal that has been exposed to a disease. The agent is usually a microbe which can be bacteria, a virus, fungi or a parasite. The environment is the surroundings that are external to the host that allow the disease to be transmitted. Changes in one of the elements of the triangle can influence an epidemic. Disease occurs when a foreign agent capable of causing the disease meets a host that is vulnerable to the agent in an environment that allows the agent and host to interact. This is useful to researchers because it guides them towards making a connection and coming up with strategies to contain the illness. John Snow’s work can be broken down to fit the context of the triangle. The hosts were the people in SOHO who contracted Cholera. The agent was the bacteria Vibrio cholerae that caused an infection in the host. The environment was the polluted water in the pump from the Thames River that was put into the water