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Acta medico-historica Adriatica : AMHA, Vol. 13 No. 1, 2015.

Review article

A NOVEL METHOD TO COMBAT THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC AMONG THE ROMANIAN ARMY DURING THE BALKAN WAR - 1913

Florin Leasu orcid id orcid.org/0000-0003-3062-8176 ; Faculty of Medicine, Transilvania University Brasov, Romania
Codruta Nemet ; Faculty of Medicine, Transilvania University Brasov, Romania
Cristina Borzan ; Faculty of Medicine, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj- Napoca, Romania
Liliana Rogozea orcid id orcid.org/0000-0001-9551-9910 ; Faculty of Medicine, Transilvania University Brasov, Romania

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Abstract

The history of cholera, a specific infection caused by Vibrio Cholerae, starts in ancient times.
The sixth pandemic that began in 1899 and lasted until 1923, started in India and came to Eastern Europe through Russia. The expansion of the epidemic in the Balkans was facilitated both by the 2 Balkan Wars and the First World War.
Romania, as a participant in these wars was affected by cholera, which was especially common among the army during the Balkan War. If the original source of the cholera issue is still controversial, both Romanians and Bulgarians accusing each other of being the basis of
the outbreaks south of the Danube, it is widely recognized that the extent of the disease was facilitated by the sanitary conditions of food preparation and drinking water sources among both Romanian soldiers and in the civilian population.
Under these conditions, in addition to numerous measures against cholera taken by the Ministry of War, Prof. I. Cantacuzino successfully experiments outbreak vaccination for the first time in the world with a vaccine prepared by himself and his collaborators.
The vaccine containing 25 breeds of vibriones was a success in terms of rapid development of a preparation, the application of which was achieved through a quick campaign and proved extremely efficient, imposing the Romanian method as an effective way to combat a disease
in full outbreak.

Keywords

cholera; vaccine; outbreak; vast Romanian experiment; Ion Cantacuzino

Hrčak ID:

142125

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/142125

Publication date:

15.6.2015.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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