CONQUESTS OF CHOLERA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20151, 21 May 1928, Page 11

CONQUESTS OF CHOLERA

NOTABLE DISCOVERY A DREAD DISEASE. Cholera, fatal intestinal disease, is as old as populated India; and until 1817 never left the home grounds. In that year it spread East, with the increase of travel in later years it spread West. The great pandemic of 1879 to 1883 threw a scare into the civilised world, sent scientists to microscope and test tube, sent Robert Koch into Egypt from which he emerged with the Vibrio cholerae, cause of all the trouble. Work on the troublesome organism has not ceased since that time. During the last epidemic the British. Government appointed Dr Felix d’Hcrelle, world renowned bacteriologist, head of a special mission to India to study cholera. Last month he returned to Paris victorious. The bacteriophage which is liberated by Vibrio cholerae, discovered by d’Hcrelle in 1917, had eradicated the disease and immunised the population of large areas. With characteristic biologic modesty, the cholera bacteriouhage had been at work long before it was discovered and named. There have always been cholera patients who recovered spontaneously; many a village in India has remained free from cholera while the epidemic raged around it. These patients had an abundance of bacteriophages in the intestines, probably because the village drinking water had been accidentally contaminated by the bacteriophages. D. d’Hcrelle systematised these coincidences. He prepared cultures of the bacteriophage from the stools of convalescent patients, transferred 30 to 40 cubic centimetres of the culture to every well in the district, administered several cubic centimetres by mouth to all sufferers repeatedly. The bacteriophage feeds on the living matter to which it is accustomed. Therefore the cultures in the wells ate up all the cholera organisms, purifying the drinking water; the cultures administered by mouth destroyed all the cholera germs in the intestines, healing the sick. Even in grave cases where the patients were already moribund the mortality was cut down phenomenally. Sixty-two per cent, of the cases that were not treated died, whereas only 8 per cent, of the treated cases succumbed. Cholera strikes suddenly. Intense thirst is followed by acute cramps and collapse about the third day, when most deaths occur. During the collapse the face turns black, the skin becomes dry and hard, the voice fades. Early and extreme rigidity of the corpse is a striking feature of cholera and the origin of much superstition. Frequently the corpse will sit bolt upright on the stretcher as it is being carried to the morgue, or rise on its cot at home.