The cholera epidemic that raged Cartagena in 1849
In the middle of the XIX century, Cartagena de Indias counted
18,000 residents and this number would have been bigger if it
weren’t of the cholera. The pest ravaged the city in 1849, still
again a progressive decrease that was followed in the beginning
of the republic period.
Certain fishermen are dead while they were at sea and this would
have started the cholera epidemic once returned to the city by
creating more deaths with the public market. Later, the medical
diagnostic was “morbo cholera”, a disease that made an
apparition in America.
The pest that was laid all around the city caused massif deaths
which forced the authorities to dig a hole in the large cemetery
of Manga. In desperation, people fired canons to purify the
infected air with the smoke of canon powder, but this simply
scared off the neighbours.
The authorities took measures to help the sickest ones, whether
they were rich, medium or poor. A solidarity mind was felt to
battle against the epidemic and this without social
discrimination.
After five weeks, the pest rapidly decreased until its
disappearance, but it moved along the villages close from the
Magdalena River.
According to hypothetic, the estimation of the dead population
of Cartagena de Indias was a third.
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