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In the 1850s, efforts to control a severe cholera outbreak in London led to the birth of modern medical geography. A careful examination of the effects of the disease, which included tracing its course on neighborhood maps and studying the correlation of cholera hotspots to public wells and water-pumps, allowed public health officials to respond to the outbreak. The incident–detailed in Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map–also led to a new understanding of contagion and the role of social science in medicine.
The study reveals that the majority of major infectious disease events emerged when diseases essentially hopped species, spreading from livestock or wildlife to humans, such as the H5N1 flu strain. More disturbingly, the map shows that research funding targets areas where major infectious diseases are unlikely to appear, strengthening the monitoring and public health infrastructures of first-world countries while meeting the needs of the underdeveloped– often rural–areas where diseases are more likely to appear in a haphazard way.
. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
