Izvorni znanstveni članak
God’s Punishment or Bad Strategy: Anti-Epidemic Measures in the Lower Neretva Basin at the Time of Cholera in 1886
Mario Wokaunn
; Dubrovnik General Hospital, Department of Surgery, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Stella Fatović-Ferenčić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9637-4792
; Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Department for the History and Philosophy of Sciences, Division for the History
Ivan Jurić
; Metković, Croatia
Marijo Bekić
; Dubrovnik General Hospital, Department of Surgery, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Sažetak
The epidemic of cholera that took place in the Neretva basin in 1886 was part of the fifth pandemic wave that was spreading throughout Europe. Based on the death records, vital statistics and the newspaper articles from that period, in this paper we present the emergence and the course this epidemic. In the context of analysis and experience of the epidemic of cholera in the lower Neretva basin, the newspaper articles have been recognized as a sensitive register of the changes of behavioural patterns, the way of speaking, the mechanisms of reacting and adjusting to the spreading epidemic,
but also the resistance to it. It is based on this material that we can make conclusions about the relationship between the individual and the collective in the time of danger, as well as about the particularities of historical events that have been left out in other sources. Two potential paths for cholera to enter the area of the lower Neretva basin have been identified: one from the sea and the other from land, via the neighbouring country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Quarantine measures had been taken in order to prevent the onslaught of the epidemic, a sanitary cordon was organized, disinfection of the land was carried out and a cholera hospital organized in Metković. However, despite the undertaken measures, an inefficiency of the government organs was obvious, because their actions mainly applied to formal fulfilment of
anti-epidemic measures and they quite easily handed over individual initiatives to physicians. The analysis of strategies concerning the application of anti-epidemic measures in the past can be useful for learning more about the multilayered nature of social mechanisms in the time of epidemics, which makes it convincing and valuable even in the present day.
Ključne riječi
history of medicine; cholera; 19th century; the lower Neretva basin; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
90473
URI
Datum izdavanja:
5.10.2012.
Posjeta: 1.610 *