John Snow And The Cholera Outbreak Of The 1840s

On the Discovery Trail with Epidemiologists of the Past
John Snow and the Cholera Outbreak of the 1840s, Question 1-4
Cholera is a severe diarrhoeal disease that can kill within only a matter of hours if left untreated. During the 19th Century, there was an immense epidemic of Cholera that effected London, which killed thousands of people. Q1) Dr. John Snow was a British physician who found the reason as to why there was an outbreak of Cholera. He hypothesised that Cholera was a water-based disease, spread through contaminated water.
His other theories which coincided with his hypothesis included that Cholera was:
• Not transmitted through poor air quality (Miasmas theory)
• Likely caused from some kind of parasite/germ
• Transmitted through
Snow was able to locate the source of the disease by using what we now call, ‘Medical Geography’. Using his knowledge about Cholera prior to the outbreak, he was convinced that the disease was water based and so decided to map out London and plot the deaths from Cholera looking for any relationship. When he drew up his map, it showed clusters of deaths from Cholera were near wells, water pumps and other water sources.
An advantage of using such a method of a ‘case map’ was that you could see where there were any abnormalities (i.e. any clusters of deaths around a specific area .). Since the facts are shown visually, it easier to read, comprehend and analyse.
Another advantage of using this method is that you can see the environment that it’s in, including different factors that could contribute to the disease progression, in this case, water pumps. This is called epidemiological
And, of course, there would always be at least a few people who ‘break’ those rules, thus ruining the method. Also, it wouldn’t be very effective in data; money and safety wise, as then people would be drunk from drinking the beer and wine, and wouldn’t be able o pay for all the liquor needed.
However, despite all of these techniques listed to try to prove Dr. Snows hypothesis, they are not completely conclusive. These techniques, whilst still receiving some important, useful results, are all better to be used as extra information to stand by his main proof (case map).
Q7) The ‘germ theory of disease’ is a theory that states diseases are caused by little germs invading the body (or in other words, microorganisms). It is a theory that had developed over a quite vast time period, only to be acknowledged during the mid1800’s, throughout the United States and Europe.
The ‘succession’ of the germ theory has greatly contributed to medical research, science and practice. Revolutionising the treatment of diseases and the creation of vaccinations. A new era of medicine, sanitary and human