The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-07-03
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Cholera a Constant Menace to the
Hawaiian Islands.


Hawaiian Islands.
'While much has been said and
written during the last triennium
about the great and growing dangers
of bubonic plague, yellow fever, ma
larial fever and kindred diseases,
should they obtain a foothold in the
Hawaiian Islands, there is another
invader, a veritable scourge indeed,
lurking at the very portals of this
paradise of the Pacific, ready to take
its grim toll of victims when the op-
perfume time arrives. The disease
referred to is Asiatic cholera, and
brief survey of it's history, including
the present pandemic will not be
amiss in this short article.
History.
students of the subject are pretty
well agreed that Asiatic cholera has
existed in more or less endemic form
in the delta of the Gangcs River in
India for many hundreds of years.
The first authentic account of an cpl
dennis was recorded in 1913. Goa,
India and from that time to the
twentieth century the disease has
slowly but surely progressed to pan
demic proportions, and has now be-
come a world problem in the truest
sense of the word From 1917 to the
present time history records six
fairly well marked pandemics. As
full discussion of these different pan
denies would be long and somewhat
foreign to the subject, it will suffice
to state that each succeeding pan
demic acquired territory not reached
by it's predecessors, and that the
rapidity at which the infection
spread was in direct proportion 20
the methods of travel in vogue at
the time.
1.-The present pandemic started III
1902 and has taken three distinct
routes in it's march over the world.
The first route was via India, China,
Japan, and thence to the Philippines.
In 1898 the infection spread to Persia,
Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor
and the country about the Black Sea,
/ The third invasion took a'course via
the caravan routes from Asia 20
southern Russia and Poland, am
later to eastern Prussia.
/ at is interesting to note in pass
ing that the disease has failed to gain
/ a permanent foothold in the German
Empire, because of the excellent
work of the sanitary authorities,
while Italy and Russia are being
+ scourged with an epidemic Of no
mean proportions. From May Sth to
October 18th of the present year, the
disease has spread with such alarm
ing rapldity in Russia hit two hun
dred and four thousand cases, with
ninety-ive thousand deaths, have oc-
Cured, and the end is by no means
in sight.
"The epidemic in Italy, while not
so extensive nor severe as that in
Russia, has, nevertheless, been
source of the gravest concern to the
whole country
"To show how the present pam
demic is gradually but certainly max
| ing a complete circuit Of the globe,
only within the past few days it has
been reported that the beautiful city
of Funchal, in the Madeira Islands,
has been invaded by this unseen foe,
and thus far over two hundred cases,
with probably half hundred deaths,
/ have occurred.
Nature of the Disease and How
Transmitted.
Cholera is an acute, infectious,
epidemic or endemic disease, charac-
terized by profuse purging and vomit-
ing of a colorless Serious material
cramps of the muscles, marked de,
crease in the body temperature, col
lapse, the presence OF a special bac'