1846–1860 cholera pandemic
The third cholera pandemic (1846–1860) was the third major outbreak of cholera originating in India in the 19th century that reached far beyond its borders, which researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) believe may have started as early as 1837 and lasted until 1863.[1] In the Russian Empire, more than one million people died of cholera. In 1853–1854, the epidemic in London claimed over 10,000 lives, and there were 23,000 deaths for all of Great Britain. This pandemic was considered to have the highest fatalities of the 19th-century epidemics.[2]
For another third occurrence of a pandemic, see Third plague pandemic.1846–1860 cholera pandemic
It had high fatalities among populations in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. In 1854, which was considered the worst year, 23,000 people died in Great Britain.
That year, the British physician John Snow, who was working in a poor area of London, identified contaminated water as the means of transmission of the disease. After the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak he had mapped the cases of cholera in the Soho area in London, and noted a cluster of cases near a water pump in one neighborhood. To test his theory, he convinced officials to remove the pump handle, and the number of cholera cases in the area immediately declined. His breakthrough helped eventually bring the epidemic under control. Snow was a founding member of the Epidemiological Society of London, formed in response to a cholera outbreak in 1849, and he is considered one of the fathers of epidemiology.[3][4][5]
1840s[edit]
Over 15,000 people died of cholera in Mecca in 1846.[7] In Russia, between 1847 and 1851, more than one million people died in the country's epidemic.[8]
A two-year outbreak began in England and Wales in 1848, and claimed 52,000 lives.[9] In London, it was the worst outbreak in the city's history, claiming 14,137 lives, over twice as many as the 1832 outbreak. Cholera hit Ireland in 1849 and killed many of the Irish Famine survivors, already weakened by starvation and fever.[10] In 1849, cholera claimed 5,308 lives in the major port city of Liverpool, England, an embarkation point for immigrants to North America, and 1,834 in Hull, England.[11] In 1849, a second major outbreak occurred in Paris.
Cholera, believed spread from Irish immigrant ship(s) from England to the United States, spread throughout the Mississippi river system, killing over 4,500 in St. Louis[11] and over 3,000 in New Orleans.[11] Thousands died in New York, a major destination for Irish immigrants.[11] The outbreak that struck Nashville in 1849–1850 took the life of former U.S. President James K. Polk. During the California Gold Rush, cholera was transmitted along the California, Mormon and Oregon Trails as 6,000 to 12,000[12] are believed to have died on their way to Utah and Oregon in the cholera years of 1849–1855.[11] It is believed cholera claimed more than 150,000 victims in the United States during the two pandemics between 1832 and 1849,[13][14] and also claimed 200,000 victims in Mexico.[15] In Vietnam, cholera outbreak in 1849 killed estimatedly from 800,000 to one million people (8–10% of the kingdom's 1847 population).[16] In Siam, cholera outbreak which started from Penang before passing to Pattani, Songkla, Samut Prakarn, Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Phitsanuloke and Ang Sila from June to July 1849 had killed at least 5,457 people in Bangkok and the estimated number of death from cholera outbreak varied from 15000 to 40000 people.[17][18][19][20]