Cholera In Southern India

Leprosy is a neglected topic in the burgeoning field of the history of medicine and the colonized body. Leprosy in Colonial South India is not only a history of an intriguing and dramatic endemic disease, it is a history of colonial power in nineteenth-century British India as seen through the lens of British medical and legal encounters with leprosy and its sufferers in south India. Leprosy in Colonial South India offers a detailed examination of the contribution of leprosy treatment and legislative measures to negotiated relationships between indigenous and British medicine and the colonial impact on indigenous class formation, while asserting the agency of the poor and vagrant leprous classes in their own history.

The most feared attribute of the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae is its ability to cause outbreaks that spread like wildfire, completely overwhelming public health systems and causing widespread suffering and death. This volume starts with a description of the contrasting patterns of outbreaks caused by the classical and El Tor biotypes of V. cholerae. Subsequent chapters examine cholera outbreaks in detail, including possible sources of infection and molecular epidemiology on three different continents, the emergence of new clones through the bactericidal selection process of lytic cholera phages, the circulation and transmission of clones of the pathogen during outbreaks and novel approaches to modeling cholera outbreaks. A further contribution deals with the application of the genomic sciences to trace the spread of cholera epidemics and how this information can be used to control cholera outbreaks. The book closes with an analysis of the potential use of killed oral cholera vaccines to stop the spread of cholera outbreaks.

In seven major cholera pandemics beginning in 1817, the "King of Terrors" has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The deadly effects of the so-called "disease of filth" spared no one, no matter their station in life--and today cholera is more prevalent than at any time throughout history. This book traces the history of the disease and the experience of those who suffered its ravages, using their own words from hundreds of newspapers and letters whenever possible. In so doing, the speculations, missteps, sidetracks and prevailing fears are emphasized. The authors describe the agonizingly slow march of progress toward discovering the causes and the treatment of symptoms. Along the way, the heroes of past and present are introduced: men and women who fought for their beliefs--at times against vitriolic and powerful opponents, including the medical authorities of their day.