1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak

Steven Johnson’s “The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World” examines the disastrous Cholera epidemic that struck London-- one of the world’s first urbanized centers-- in the summer of 1854. It delineates the rapid movement of the Vibrio cholerae bacteria through an area lacking proper infrastructure to accommodate a population branching into the millions, and relays the importance of scientific understanding through…

compelling account of how London’s 1854 cholera epidemic shaped the field of epidemiology and profoundly impacted our understanding of cities and disease. The diligent and remarkably multidisciplinary work of physician John Snow and curate Henry Whitehead proved that scientific methods of investigation could be applied to medicine and human populations to solve problems in society, on both local and government-wide levels. After tracing all cases of cholera in the outbreak directly back to…

The Germ Theory of Disease which is, specific diseases are caused by specific microorganisms, changed the medical field completely. It battled the Spontaneous Generation theory that dominated the medical thought as the cause of disease. The theory originated through the work of many different physicians and would eventually change and improve the medical and public health systems. The Germ theory of disease came about around the mid 1800’s. The work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch would…

The Ghost Map, written by Steven Johnson, is a nonfiction book centered on a Vibrio cholera bacterium- also called cholera- outbreak in London in eighteen fifty-four. Tellingly enough, the central theme of The Ghost Map is Illness, Death, and the Unknown; with strong underlying themes of the Scientific Process and Urban Growth and Planning, along with weaker undertones of Class Prejudice. Setting up the rest of the book is the main purpose of the first chapter, introducing how unsanitary…

health through science and logic was a cholera outbreak in London during the summer of 1854. By this time, it was well understood that a healthy public is conducive to a healthy society. When hundreds of people came down with cholera, a deadly diarrheal disease, the science of epidemiology got a chance to show its worth. Before long, John Snow – one of the first epidiologists – had shown the source of the outbreak to be contamination at one water pump on Broad Street. The…

In 1854, the bustling city of London flourished economically and socially. More than 2.4 million people squeezed their way onto this already crowded land, making it one of the largest hotspots in the world . However, the increase in population did not prove to be as beneficial as others imagined. The onset of this urban sprawl brought on great complications for the citizens of Victorian London- particularly waste problems. Inefficient disposal systems could not properly withstand the increasing…

London and Kathmandu are two contrasting cities, with more than 4,500 miles between them and due to the many different circumstances in each city they both have contrasting healthcare systems. London is the capital city of United Kingdom, a more economically developed country situated within the western hemisphere of the world whereas Kathmandu is a capital city of Nepal, a less economically developed country in the eastern hemisphere of the world. Due to their obvious differences Kathmandu and…

Manchester and Liverpool respectively. As the population grew, Victorian urban cities encountered more and more health issues. Endemic diseases, such as typhus and typhoid, re-emerged alongside with new epidemics emerging in the cities, such as cholera and smallpox (Haley, 1978). To demonstrate, in London in 1840s, on average 62 in 100,000 died from smallpox annually, with 180 in 100,000 being children under 15. For the typhus, 67 in 100,000 died where 75 in 100,000 were children under 15…

The origins of beer are closely aligned with the origins of civilization. While it was originally thought that humans began cultivating grains for making bread, recent evidence from Natufian culture (~10,000 B.C.) suggests that brewing beer may have been the primary motivation for domesticating grains (Hayden, Canuel and Shanse). Specifically, certain tools discovered at Natufian sites, such as “grinding stones,” “stone mortars,” and “stone pestles,” along with grain and liquid storage…

causative agents, morbidity and mortality. It helps to identify the risk factors and determine the distribution which is a public health concern and test for significance. An example of the investigational work epidemiologist do is the cholera outbreak of 1854 in central…