Vaba, Haiza, Kholera, Foklune or Cholera: in any language still the disease of seven pandemics

Summary, 580 2. Introduction, 580 3. Pandemics, 580 3.1. The seven pandemics, 581 3.2. The beginning of the eighth pandemic? 586 4. Treatment, 590 5. References, 590 Cholera is a disease which can strike in any community where sanitary conditions deteriorate or where it is possible for a few people to transport the organism from infected areas to new communities. The historical background of the seven major pandemics and the discovery of the causative organism are provided from 1800 to 1995. With the procedure of oral rehydration therapy few patients should succumb to the disease if clean water is available. The problem is that large‐scale floods in many places often lead to a breakdown in clean water supplies and sewerage treatment so it will not pay to be complacent, cholera has not disappeared! The history of cholera still provides important lessons for our society, in terms of the role of politicians, clergy and medics in the provision of clear and sensible information about infectious disease. It also reveals the jealousies and prejudices which exist in all strata of modern society. In natural disasters or in war one of the first fears expressed in the media is the onset of cholera; 80 000 Rwandan refugees died in Zaire in 1994 from the disease. The underlying threat has existed in recent major floods in Mozambique, Australia and the UK where raw sewage has seeped out into the flood water.