CHOLERA

• • Cholera was spread by bacteria in water and caused death through vomiting and diarrhoea
• Effect on Public Health

  • As cholera was believed to be spread by bad air (miasma) and not in water, little was done to stop it
  • People continued using the same water which was contaminated to wash, drink and do laundry
• Dr John Snow

  • First man to find that cholera was caused by dirty water
  • He found that people who drank from board street pump (where there was a cholera outbreak, in London) often became ill and died where as the workers from the nearby brewery all survived (they only drank beer)
  • Snow demonstrated this on a map where he marked where cholera death occurred
  • Snow then removed the handle from the pump and the outbreak stopped, Snow was ignored at first but after his death Louis Pasteurs Germ Theory proved he was correct