Cholera has killed millions of people since it emerged out of the filthy water and living conditions of Calcutta India in the 1800's. There have been a total of eight Cholera pandemics. In the 1970's and in the 1980's cholera epidemics occurred in the Middle East and Africa. There were also several localized outbreaks of cholera in Europe. And during the 1990's an epidemic began in Peru and spread to several other countries in South America and in Latin America.
As of February 25, 1991, the disease had claimed 90 lives and infected at least 14,000 people. It is the first major outbreak of Cholera in the western hemisphere since early in this century. In Peru, local authorities have moved quickly to stem the epidemic, which is spread by poor hygiene and contaminated water, raw food, and fish. To avoid spreading, health officials in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile, has prohibited the importation of uncooked Peruvian food products. Coastal waters have shown a high degree of contamination by testing. In early May 1991, as Cholera began to spread eastward into Peru's jungle, volunteer doctors from Lima began to navigate the rivers with boats of Peruvian Amazons, stopping at each silt-house hamlet searching for the sick. The doctors brought their I.U.S.rehydration packets to the people who drink the contaminated river water. After five months, Cholera is spreading to other countries in Latin America- and a few cases have been seen in the United States. Although Choleras disappearing from Peru for now, it will eventually become native, reappearing in weakened people for each year. This is Choleras normal course, the Peruvian government's success in treating it. Two thousand people have died; less than 1 percent of 250,000 who got the disease. In the world's last huge epidemic in West Africa in the early 1970s, the death rate was between 20 and 30percent. Cholera has killed 2,000 people while 40,000 children under 5 died year from diarrhea in Peru.