Typhoid and Cholera: The History of Each Vaccine

Typhoid and Cholera: The History of Each Vaccine

Immunization is not a product of the modern times as many would believe. The history of vaccination can be traced back to hundreds of years, when Buddhist monks drank trace amounts of snake venom to counteract snake bites or the practice of variolation in 17th century China, for protection against smallpox. However, it wasn’t until 1796, that modern immunization was systematically implemented. The brief history of vaccination is highlighted with the revolutionary discovery of smallpox vaccine, developed by Edward Jenner, followed by Louis Pasteur, who headed the development of the live attenuated vaccine for cholera and inactivated anthrax vaccination. In this article, we will explore the history of typhoid and cholera vaccination and their place in the history of vaccination.

History of Typhoid Vaccination

Over the course of history, typhoid fever has been the epicentre of many pandemics, taking hundreds of millions of lives throughout history. According to some notable historians, it is believed that typhoid fever proved to be fatal for about one third of Athens’s population in 430 BC. More than 6,000 settlers in an English colony of Virginia died due to typhoid, while 80,000 soldiers met their demise due to dysentery and typhoid fever in American Civil War. It wasn’t until the 19th century, when the pathogen responsible for typhoid fever was established and the first effective typhoid vaccination was developed and introduced to the masses. William Budd was the first English doctor, who has some success in treating typhoid fever in 1838, by identifying that infected excretions in contaminated water caused typhoid outbreaks. Karl Joseph Eberth described bacillus as the probable cause of typhoid outbreaks in 1880, which was later confirmed by George Gaffky. However, it was Almroth Edward Wright who introduced the modern typhoid vaccination intended for military use in 1896, which proved to be quite effective and was later developed further in London for introduction on a massive scale to the masses. This facilitated the steady decline of typhoid fever outbreaks in the 20th century, accompanied by chlorination of water and improvements in public sanitation.

History of Cholera Vaccination

Cholera infection has effected millions of people throughout history, but it wasn’t until the19th century that it gained prominence, when it claimed millions of lives in India in 1817, originating from infected rice in the Ganges Delta. It then quickly travelled to Sri-Lanka and Myanmar and by 1820, it has spread to Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines, where it claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people. From there it made its way to china and Japan and by 1821, it made its way to the Persian Gulf, modern-day Turkey, Southern Russia and Syria. There was no respite from the disease and it eventually died due to the extreme winter of 1823-1824 after 6 long and terrible years. Cholera infection has been responsible for seven major global pandemics since then. Each year, more than 4 million people get infected with cholera among which 21,000 to 143,000 people die. Major development to counteract cholera infection began when British physician John Snow mapped the cholera cases in Soho and identified its probable cause as contaminated water. In 1883, Robert Koch, a German micro biologist, described V. cholera, followed by Filippo Pacini who identified Cholera Bacterium in 1854. In 1885, Spanish physician Jaime Ferran created the first effective cholera vaccination after successful cultivation of Vibrio Cholerae and working with live germs. He also helped 50,000 people in Spain by conducting a mass vaccination.