türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Milliyet Newspaper, 13 August 2019)
Dr. Marie Pierre Verrollot was the head physician at the French
Hospital in Istanbul in 1848 during a cholera epidemic. Now, his
memoir has been translated into Turkish for the first time by
Özgür Yılmaz, whose book is entitled "Istanbul'da Kolera 1848
Salgını Üzerine Bir İnceleme" (An Examination of the 1848 Cholera
Epidemic in Istanbul) and which has been published by Libra Kitap.
At that time the population of Istanbul was 721,700 (it is between
16-20 million now) and in the course of 1848, 4,292 residents of the
city died from cholera. Dr. Verrollot's memoir records the smallest
details of the epidemic and, in particular, its demographıc impact.
For example, surprisingly, cholera struck the rich disproportionately,
with the poorer sections of Istanbul suffering less from the illness.
//Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by
ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium
Vibrio cholerae. Cholera remains a global threat to public
health and an indicator of inequity and lack of social
development. (Source: World Health Organization).//
Dr. Verrollot related that "the illness exhibited an oddity that cannot
be explained. While cholera usually prefers the least healthy and
poorest areas, this time we saw that this was not the case with this
epidemic. Most of the victims were not from among those who live
in the filthy places but, rather, from among that class of people whose
lives are the most well-ordered. And even more surprisingly, the
victim was most often the wife instead of the hard-drinking husband."
Dr. Verrollot stated in his memoir that most deaths occurred during
the months of August, July, January and March. He related that
"initially, cholera struck the Greek and Europeans in Pera and Galata.
But at the end of the first month, it spread to the Military Hospital.
After 23 November and up until the middle of December, there were
only 9 incidents of cholera at the military port, two of which resulted
in deaths."
"On 18 December, however, 49 sailors came down with cholera and
over the next 20 days there were 244 more cases of the disease, 75
of which were deadly. The first incident of cholera in Kuzguncuk
(on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus) was noted in a Greek
bargeman on 16 December. After suffering for 10 hours, the patient
passed away."
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