Star Two. What main diseases were spread throughout Industrial Britain?

During the Industrial Revolution a fraction of the population were forced to work in the new factories to be able to support their family. Women and children were also now working in the factories in astounding numbers. Between the overcrowding of working space, unsanitary living AND working conditions, and pollution disease was able to make it's way through the cities and create complete devastation.
One of the main diseases during the Industrial Revolution was cholera. Cholera hit London so hard that it was known as "King Cholera." Cholera is spread through contaminated water, and during the Industrial Revolution there was plenty of that. People still generally received their drinking water from rivers so they were easily introduced to the disease. Rivers were contaminated mainly due to the fact that sewage water was allowed to flow into the rivers. With the population's immune systems already declining, cholera was free to spread quickly.
Britain was hit by cholera devastations multiple times. The first lasted from 1831-1832, the second wave lasted from 1848 to 1849, and then again in 1854 and 1867. It was documented that in the 1831-1832 outbreak in London around 7000 people died. That meant that cholera had a 50% mortality rate. In the 1848 to 1849 out break, however, 15,000 people died from "King Cholera."
Another disease to hit Industrial cities was smallpox. Most industrial cities were oblivious to the fact that Edward Jenner had created a vaccine for smallpox. This created a huge re-occurrence of the disease. With most of Britain's population centralized within the cities the disease could enter one city and kill a large population. The overcrowding enabled the disease to spread throughout both living quarters and places of work.
Typhoid and Typhus were both also common throughout the cities. Typhoid is a lot like cholera; it is spread through water or food that is contaminated by fecal matter. Typhoid is characterized, however, by an unnaturally high fever. Dehydration is a common symptom, and if not treated Typhoid can cause hemorrhaging of the intestines, and internal bleeding. Typhoid spread through the city of Croydon in 1852. The Board of Health began searching for a reason of the outbreak, however, they never thought the problem might be the sewage in the water. Typhus, on the other hand, is carried by lice. Rats and mice would carry the infected lice, which would then spread to the people. Rats were common in cities, and had been known to spread diseases before (such as the bubonic plague). Typhus was easily spread due to the overcrowding as well. Lice could easily move from person to person. Typhus was characterized by a rash that spread throughout the whole body. It was not discovered that lice were the carriers until the 20th century, which meant no real precaution could be taken towards Typhus during the 19th century.
While cholera, typhoid fever, and typhus all majorly affected the population, the greatest killer of Industrial Britain was tuberculosis, or TB. TB is highly contagious, it is easily spread by simply inhaling the disease that an infected person has breathed out. With (you guessed it) overcrowding, TB was able to take London by storm. TB easily affected the undernourished and close quartered, and those whom had damp homes. It is believed that TB killed around one-third of all of the British population that died from 1800 to 1850.

Alls I have to say is, medical advances ftw!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis
http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/disease.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/diseases_industrial_revolution.htm
http://universalfacts.blogspot.com/2007/06/industrial-revolution-and-public-health.html
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=261680