Cholera is a bacterial infection; its immediate cause is a comma-shaped bacterium called Vibrio cholerae, and advancements in human civilization are what have allowed it to be so devastating. This disease attacks the small intestine and leads to high-volume diarrhea and vomiting, with potential weight loss of twenty pounds in a day. Although it is a short sickness, only lasting a few days, it is still deadly, and some strains can be fatal within hours of onset. In the past two centuries, it was known as the “blue death,” because as dehydration becomes severe, human skin turns a bluish-gray.

Cholera has been around for thousands of years, but 1817 was when the first global cholera pandemic began. It would be the first of 7 outbreaks, the last of which is still ongoing. Cholera has been a memorable part of human history since widespread globalization began, so it has naturally been expressed in visual and material culture in many ways. At first cholera was believed to be caused by dirty air, but during the third outbreak in 1852, it was discovered that cholera spreads via oral-fecal transmission. Human feces containing Vibrio cholerae contaminates water, where the bacteria survive until someone drinks the water, or eats food washed with it. So cholera is spread by people—specifically, our infected feces.

It is hard to imagine how fast and deadly cholera outbreaks could be—but to give one example, on June 26th, 1849, a tiny town in Indiana reported a single case of cholera. Five weeks later, half the town was dead. By the time the fifth major pandemic began in 1899, we had the tools to fight cholera, an IV saline solution, and we understood what caused cholera and how to prevent it. However still today, 120,000 people die from this preventable disease. Cholera remains a global disease, but one that affects almost exclusively the poor.

References

"Cholera." CDC.gov.

"Cholera." History.com, last modified March 24, 2o20.

"Cholera: The Forgotten Pandemic." World Health Organization, last modified October 22, 2018.

Daly, Walter J. "The Black Cholera Comes to the Central Valley of America in the 19^th Century." Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, Vol. 119 (2008): 143–153.

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Similar to COVID-19, human beings are both the cause of, and the solution to, cholera. In 160 years, we went from believing the disease was caused by dirty air to understanding how it spreads, how to treat it effectively, and how to prevent it entirely. Hopefully, we reach the full level of understanding we have of cholera in far less than 160 years for COVID-19, and we are already are on the right track. Some similarities to cholera carry over. Not everyone who gets cholera gets sick—and so some people who travel after unknowingly contracting the disease then introduce it to new communities. Cholera existed for thousands of years before the first pandemic but was unable to be a pandemic until humans created the massive cities we have today. In an isolated group, cholera cannot survive because it kills so rapidly. COVID may not kill quite like cholera does, but it does also spread rapidly thanks to how interconnected we all are.