Disease In The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a time of innovations in technology, production, and population. Those being the positive side of the revolution, but the one downside to this was disease. This was one of the biggest problems at the time since it was so easily spread and there were many different types of diseases with no medication to get rid of them. These diseases could be waterborne or airborne. Waterborne was spread when waste contaminated the drinking, and bathing water which was often the river. Airborne was spread just through breathing the same air as a contaminated person so these were most often contracted.
One of these was cholera, which began to spread in 1830 and was a waterborne bacterium. This disease has been detrimentally life threatening often “...two or three died of diarrhea, which increased in intensity and became accompanied by painful retching; thirst and dehydration; severe pain in the limbs, stomach, and abdominal muscles; a change skin hue to a sort of bluish-grey” (Douglas). This illness claimed approximately one million two hundred and fifty thousand people from 1831-1832 and 1847-1851. Another common disease in this era was influenza, or common day flu, common to today’s influenza the symptoms included fever, chills, muscle aches, cough, congestion, runny nose, headaches, dehydration and fatigue. This is an airborne disease unlike cholera …show more content…
As a result, people easily spread the diseases, especially the poor since they were already malnourished due to not getting enough food since food prices were high. In conclusion, even though the industrial revolution sets the ground plan for our society today there were still many diseases over the years of the industrial revolution. Accompanied by overcrowding, especially by the poor, malnutrition, pollution, and unsanitary conditions it is no wonder as to why there were as many fatalities as there