First cholera pandemic

The first cholera pandemic, also known as the first Asiatic cholera pandemic or Asiatic cholera, lasted from 1817 to 1824. [Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History By J. N. Hays page 193] While cholera had spread across India many times previously, this outbreak went further; it reached as far as China and the Caspian Sea before receding.

Thousands of people died as a result of this pandemic, including many British soldiers, drawing European attention. This was the first of several cholera pandemics to sweep through Asia and Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. This first pandemic spread over an unprecedented territory, affecting almost every country in Asia.

Origin and initial spread

Cholera was endemic to the Lower Ganges River [Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History By J. N. Hays page 193] . At festival times, pilgrims brought the disease back to other parts of India, where it would spread, then subside. The first cholera pandemic started similarly, as an outbreak that was suspected to have begun at a Hindu pilgrimage, Kumbh Mela, on the upper Ganges River, in the town of Jessore in 1817. There were earlier outbreaks of Cholera near Purnia in Bihar but these are thought to be unrelated. In 1817, Cholera began spreading outside of the Ganges delta. In September of 1817, the disease had moved to Calcutta and quickly spread to the rest of the subcontinent. In 1818 the disease broke out in Bombay.

pread beyond India

In May 1820 the disease was found in Siam, in May 1820 the disease had spread as far as Bangkok and Manila, in spring of 1821 the disease reached Java, Oman, and Anhai in China, in 1822 the disease was found in Japan, in the Persian Gulf, in Baghdad, in Syria, and in the Transcaucacus, and in 1823 cholera reached Astrakhan, Zanzibar, and Mauritius. [Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History By J. N. Hays page 193]

In 1824, the disease halted its expansion; some believe that it might have been due in part to the cold winter of 1823-24. [Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History By J. N. Hays page 193]

The movement of the British Army and Navy account for the vast distances that this pandemic covered. Hindu pilgrims carried cholera within the subcontinent, as had happened many times previous, but British troops carried it overland to Nepal and Afghanistan, and the navy and merchant ships brought it the shores of the Indian Ocean, from Africa to Indonesia, and north to China and Japan [Plagues and People By William H. McNeill page 268] .

Total deaths

The total deaths from the epidemic remain unknown although there are some estimates of death tolls in specific areas. Some estimate that Bangkok might have suffered 30,000 deaths from the disease. In Semarang, Java, 1,225 people died in eleven days in April of 1821. [Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History By J. N. Hays page 193]

References

External links

* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/bio_cholera.htm]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=GyE8Qt-kS1kC&pg=PA193&dq=first+Cholera+pandemic&ei=_KsDSMfDJKXOjgHypZCNDA&sig=P3ZX1BBSDWd1FvLJwpVs4Wx3E2E#PPA193,M1 Goole Book Link to Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History By J. N. Hays page 193]