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A hundred years ago Cholera was a scourge in the United States claiming thousands of lives. Today, it is largely forgotten; a result of our maintaining a modern water and sewer system.
Africa has seen an ongoing Cholera epidemic for more than 30 years, however, and new outbreaks appeared in South American in 1991.
Although Cholera appears to have been endemic on the Indian Subcontinent for centuries, with anecdotal reports going back to the time of Hippocrates, the first long-distance spread of cholera to Europe and the Americas begin in 1817.
Over the next 100 years, six waves of cholera had spread around the world in devastating epidemics. Fortunately, the advent of modern water and sewage treatment systems had, by the early 20th century, nearly eliminated cholera in America and Western Europe.
For the next 60 years cholera retracted from the world stage, and was found mostly in Asia. In 1961 the `El Tor' biotype reemerged and produced a major epidemic in the Philippines, resulting in a 7th global wave of the disease. Since then, this biotype has spread across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Europe.
Today, cholera is spreading once again across Vietnam. Twelve hundred people have been affected so far, and the fear is, this will only worsen.
Right now nations in South East Asia are battling bird flu, but they do not do that in a vacuum. Other devastating diseases are occurring every day, and they are competing for scarce public resources.
Cholera infects two more provinces
12:04' 09/11/2007 (GMT+7)
Street food, the sources of cholera
VietNamNet Bridge – Cholera has currently spread to 13 provinces and the epidemic will only gain further momentum due to migrating virus carriers, warned the Health Ministry Thursday.
Notably, two chefs of a five-star hotel and a restaurant in Hanoi tested positive to the cholera virus.
The two new provinces on the cholera map are Nam Dinh and Ha Nam, with one cholera patient each. The total number of patients by November 8 was over 1,200.
The two patients in Nam Dinh and Ha Nam ate salad, noodle soup and dog meat (no shrimp paste) in Hanoi before they returned to their homes. Health experts warn the epidemic spreads because of movement between provinces
Nguyen Huy Nga, Head of Preventive Health said that cholera patients are mainly over 20, and are labourers and farmers who travel often.
Deputy Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan said that passengers at coach and railway stations and airports in Hanoi who will travel to other provinces must take special care.
He also noted that people who stay at hospitals to care for cholera patients are the sources of cholera.
Huan has asked for strict inspections of hotels and restaurants, all that fail to meet hygiene standards will be immediately closed.
He warned foreign backpackers who often eat street food that the cholera risk is high.
The Hanoi Department of Health Thursday delivered free one-time plastic gloves for all restaurants in Hanoi. Other provinces are told to do the same for urban restaurants.
Hospitals in Hanoi are seeking to increase the numbers of hospital beds but as the flow of nation-wide patients are running to Hanoi, hospitals are currently full.
The cholera epidemic hit Hanoi on October 23 and spread to 13 provinces by November 8. The source of the virus is now not only shrimp paste but various foods, both raw and processed.
(Source: VNE)
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