Cholera And Public Health In The 19th And 20th Centuries

Cholera and Public Health in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Before modern medicine and hygiene, infectious diseases were much more common and much more dangerous than they are today. This is because with a combined lack of hygiene and proper medical practice, bacteria were able to spread rapidly and were harder to contain. This caused for a number of epidemics and outbreaks to occur before major advancements of modern medicine took place in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One of the most common and fatal outbreaks of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the cholera outbreak. Cholera is an infectious disease of the intestine that is caused by a bacteria found in feces called Vibrio cholerae. The infection causes diarrhea and a rapid loss of dehydration. If not treated, death can occur
The first major organized public health movement began in France public in the 1920’s and was a group comprised of doctors, engineers, veterinarians, chemists, and pharmacists that called themselves hygienists. The movement developed within the political context of the time, with many disagreement of the level of involvement the state should have when it comes to public health. Many people believed that the responsibility should be left up to the individual, while many people believed that it was up to the state to get involvement in what was now a global issue. In nineteenth century England, a man named Edwin Chadwick was the proponent of public health. Chadwick viewed health as a way to regain wealth in the country, and therefore was focused on achieving a conclusive report on the cause of infectious diseases. In 1842, Chadwick published a report titled Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Britain, which concluded that the cause of diseases was from “filthy environmental conditions, polluted water supplies, and the decaying garbage and wastes clogging the