1826–1837 cholera pandemic
The second cholera pandemic (1826–1837), also known as the Asiatic cholera pandemic, was a cholera pandemic that reached from India across Western Asia to Europe, Great Britain, and the Americas, as well as east to China and Japan. Cholera caused more deaths, more quickly, than any other epidemic disease in the 19th century. The medical community now believes cholera to be exclusively a human disease, spread through many means of travel during the time, and transmitted through warm fecal-contaminated river waters and contaminated foods. During the second pandemic, the scientific community varied in its beliefs about the causes of cholera.
Cholera dissemination across Asia and Europe in 1817–1831
Cholera epidemic in Palermo 1835
A French caricature from 1830
Hand bill from the New York City Board of Health, 1832: The outdated public health advice demonstrates the lack of understanding of the disease and its causes.
Seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817. The seventh cholera pandemic is officially a current pandemic and has been ongoing since 1961, according to a World Health Organization factsheet in March 2022. Additionally, there have been many documented major local cholera outbreaks, such as a 1991–1994 outbreak in South America and, more recently, the 2016–2021 Yemen cholera outbreak.
Hand bill from the New York City Board of Health, 1832. The outdated public health advice demonstrates the lack of understanding of the disease and its actual causative factors.
Disposal of dead bodies during the cholera epidemic in Palermo in 1835
Register of Patients Gosport Naval Hospital August 1832 cholera cases
A pump memorializing John Snow for his study of contaminated water as a likely source of cholera during the 1854 Broad Street Cholera outbreak