OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this unit is to explore the meaning of "public health" in the nineteenth-century. Who was responsible for protecting the health and well-being of the community when an epidemic disease threatened? How did Americans respond to such threats? In what ways (and why?) are their responses different from what we might expect today? Cholera was one of the most feared of the epidemic diseases, and it provides a good vehicle through which to examine the public health responses the nineteenth century.
Begin by reading the student summary of Charles Rosenberg's study of three cholera epidemics in mid-century New York City, The Cholera Years.
What distinguished one New York epidemic from another? At a minimum, consider the explanation of the disease (who or what was responsible), the view at the time of the contagion of the disease, the various treatments for cholera, and the public health response to cholera.
In 1854 (between the second and third appearances of cholera in New York) John Snow, a most important figure in the history of public health, mapped the presence and spread of cholera in London and changed thinking about the cause and treatment of the disease.
Cholera spread across the continent each time it reached the United States. In what ways was the problem defined and dealt with differently in other regions of the country during the nineteenth century?
While in 1854 John Snow made us aware of how cholera is transmitted, the disease can still reach epidemic proportions in parts of the world, most recently in Latin America.
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