History of Cholera

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 History of Cholera

P.K.Ghatak, MD

Date 10.08.2025

No.36.


Cholera is an acute gastroenteritis due to ingestion of contaminated food and water by a tiny, comma-shaped, motile bacterium belonging to the genus Vibrio. The natural habitat of Vibrio is the mangrove forest along the coastline of the Bay of Bengal. The crabs, other crustaceans, and the vegetation of the brackish water provide food and shelter for the vibrio. 

 The earliest recorded history of the cholera epidemic appeared only after the East India Company took over the administration of Bengal.


The big cat is the apex predator of the forested area of the bay. People only ventured into the forest to catch shads during their run and to collect honey; some invariably lost their lives during the expeditions. And this was the main reason the cholera did not spread further into the sparse human settlements. 


The British of the East India Company took up the sport of tiger hunting, which required many drum-beaters to direct tigers towards them, waiting on a platform built on a high perch. Many locals served as drum beaters and moved into this area and began living permanently. This practice broke the natural barrier for the spread of cholera. The first pandemic of cholera broke out in 1817 in a town near Calcutta. Five more pandemics followed, and the last one began in Indonesia


Cholera broke out in Egypt in 1883, and the Government of Egypt asked the German government to send experts to Egypt to find the cause of cholera. Robert Koch, the person who formulated Koch’s postulate, was working for the government, and he was sent to Alexandria, Egypt. He was about to discover the organism causing Cholera, but the epidemic stopped. He relocated to Calcutta, India, and successfully discovered the organism and obtained it in pure culture, but species identification of the Vibrio cholerae was completed by Dr. Filippo Pacini in 1854

 The pathophysiology of cholera was published in 1951 by  Pathologist Dr. Sambhunath Dey of the Calcutta Medical College. The oral rehydration solution was introduced by doctors in Calcutta.


 From the time of Emperor Ashoka, Bengal was known as the food basket of India and was the most prosperous region in India due to its world-famous textiles, brass, and jute products.

The first foreign invader of Bengal occurred in 1203, led by Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji, and the occupation ended in 1947 when the UK left India as a result of the aftermath of World War II. By then, Bengal was torn to pieces and turned into a basket case of  India.  Bengal could not even provide safe drinking water for its people. The WHO visited Calcutta in 1952 and introduced the chlorination of unfiltered water used for industrial and municipal general cleaning purposes. That ended the sad plight of people on both sides of the divided Bengal from yealy onslot of Cholera.


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