To some point, I think the Kenya Health Department is still irrelevant in the measures it puts in place in the war against cholera, by harassing food sellers across the big city.
Below is a document I wrote in March 2016, on a related research as part of my academic work. Some of this information is also available on the website: Cartographies of Life and Death
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In The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson argues that the cholera outbreak that swept through the Broad Street of Soho in September of 1854 was one of the defining moments in the invention of modern life. His book takes into account the devastating cholera outbreak that claimed many Londoners’ lives in the mid-nineteenth century and its relation to today’s medial development across the world. It also takes into account the findings of one of the leading British physicians of the time, Dr. John Snow, on the causes of the cholera epidemic.
Up to mid-nineteenth century, London had faced a series of cholera outbreaks. However, nobody had any idea about the cause of the disease. The symptoms of the disease would include: vomiting, stomach upset and diarrhea. The disease was also very fast at killing as some of the victims would die within twelve hours. Many people associated the disease with the miasmal theory, claiming that the disease was transmitted by air or through inhalation of contaminated air. Over a period of two years up to 1854, London had suffered deaths of 7,466 people from cholera infections.
It was until the cholera outbreak that occurred during the summer of 1854, and that swept away lives of many people living with a few miles radius, that the many people and especially scientists across London got a different idea about the cause the epidemic. The deaths caused by the disease of this time were centered around one of the water pumps of London, located at the Broad Street in Soho, Carnaby Street.
John Snow who was one of the founding fathers of epidemiology, identified the source of cholera as contaminated water and food, and contradicted the miasmal theory that had been known to many people previously. He discovered that cholera could not be caused by inhaling contaminated air, as many people associated the disease with air pollution that was rampant during the industrial revolution in London. In his research, Snow sampled water from all the water wells across the London city. Londoners used water from several shallow wells across the city. Water from most of these pumps was free, public, and considered safe for drinking and other domestic use. Nobody would admit that the water could contain any microbes and the theory of germs was highly overlooked at this time. Guided by his past knowledge in the field of medicine, as he had treated cholera cases earlier in Newcastle, Snow examine the water samples under a microscope, and discovered the presence of micro-organisms in some water samples.
Snow further drew a dotted map to represent the distribution of cholera deaths across the city. In the map, he recorded the location of all deaths reported as a result of cholera infection. From the map, it was clear that the deaths were clustered around the water pump in The Broad Street of Soho. Fewer deaths were reported from the people who used water from other pumps as compared to those who drank water from this pump.
This further validated his argument that the cholera was more a water-borne disease than air-borne. This is because his finding clearly showed that the large number of cholera cases around one water pump, meant that this was as a result of water contamination at the pump. In addition, Dr. Snow carried out some statistical research on the disease to give more support to his argument. For instance, he discovered that the worker at a brewery, east of water pump at The Broad Street could drink beer brewed with water from the pump, but they did not die. According to him, the germs that caused cholera died during the fermentation process of beer, and hence the people consuming the beer did not die. After an intensive research, Dr. Snow recommended the improvement of the condition of the water pump in Soho. Following this, construction of an improved sanitation system at the water pump was effected. This caused the number of cholera cases to subside greatly. This cleared showed that cholera infections were more related to the quality of water consumed by the people rather than the prevailing miasmal theory.
Despite all this, Snow’s research and recommendations did not find full support from the many and more importantly, the health officials. Health officials dismissed Snow’s evidence and claimed that they did not see any reason to adopt his belief. Dr. Snow however continued to trace all other cases of cholera and traces all of the back to The Broad Street pump.
In conclusion the cholera outbreak of 1854 in The Broad Street of Soho was one of the defining moments of modern life. It gave a notable opportunity to scientists like Dr. John Snow to carry out intensive research on the possible causes of cholera. Through his findings, scientists across the world changed their thinking about cholera and adopted a different understanding of the medical field. Dr. Snow’s findings have found support among scientists in today’s world, especially in the medical and disease control field. In addition, scientists have regarded him as the pioneer of public health research in a field of epidemiology.
References
Steven Johnson’s 2006 book The Ghost Map: the Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic, and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World (available in paperback) is a highly entertaining account of the epidemic and Snow’s analysis of it