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Thesixth cholera pandemic (1899–1923) was a major outbreak ofcholera beginning inIndia, where it killed more than 800,000 people, and spreading toWest Asia,North Africa,Eastern Europe, andRussia.[1]
The outbreak of the pandemic is thought to have started at theHaridwar Kumbh Mela. The epidemic spread to Europe viaPunjab,Afghanistan,Persia, andsouthern Russia. An outbreak of cholera in New York City from 1910 to 1911 is thought to be part of the pandemic, having spread through infected people aboard thesteamshipMoltke which was transporting passengers fromNaples. In 1913, there wasa cholera outbreak in forces of theRomanian Army which were taking part in military operations of theSecond Balkan War in Bulgarian areas.
According toLeonard Rogers, following an outbreak of cholera at theHaridwar Kumbh Mela, the epidemic spread to Europe viaPunjab, Afghanistan, Persia, and southern Russia.[2][3]
The last cholera outbreak in the United States was in 1910–1911 when the steamshipMoltke brought infected people to New York City fromNaples. Vigilant health authorities isolated the infected onSwinburne Island, built in the nineteenth century as a quarantine facility. Eleven people died, including a health care worker at the island hospital.[4][5][6]
In 1913, theRomanian Army, while invadingBulgaria during theSecond Balkan War, suffereda cholera outbreak that provoked 1,600 deaths.[7][8][9]
At the turn of the century, the sixth pandemic killed more than 800,000 in India before moving into the Middle East, northern Africa, Russia and parts of Europe. By 1923, cholera had receded from most of the world, although many cases were still present in India.
In New York, up to July 22, there were eleven deaths from cholera, one of the victims being an employee at the hospital onSwinburne Island, who had been discharged. The tenth was a lad, seventeen years of age, who had been a steerage passenger on the steamship, Moltke. The plan has been adopted of taking cultures from the intestinal tracts of all persons held under observation at Quarantine, and in this way it was discovered that five of the 500 passengers of the Moltke and Perugia, although in excellent health at the time, were harboring cholera microbes.
The sixth death from cholera since the arrival in this port from Naples of the steamship Moltke, thirteen days ago, occurred yesterday atSwinburne Island. The victim was Francesco Farando, 14 years old.
A case of cholera developed today in the steerage of the Hamburg-American liner Moltke, which has been detained at quarantine as a possible cholera carrier since Monday last. Dr. A.H. Doty, health officer of the port, reported the case tonight with the additional information that another cholera patient from the Moltke is under treatment atSwinburne Island.
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