Cholera in Landskrona

in Swedish

The cholera epidemic in Landskrona in 1853

In the mid-19th century, Borstahusen was a small fishing village with about 400 inhabitants just north of Landskrona. In September 1853, the notorious killer cholera came to the village. A quarter of the population fell ill and 31 people died. In October, no one died.

What happened and what was known about cholera at this time?

Cholera morbus - Asiatic cholera

In the mid-19th century, cholera was a dreaded disease that led to a quick and painful death. It was often called Asian cholera because it spread from India in waves. Those who were sick suffered from violent diarrhea, muscle spasms, their eyes seemed to sink into their sockets, and their skin turned dark blue. A person could feel a little sick in the morning, only to die before dawn the next day.

The disease affected England, for example, around 1830 with approximately 22,000 deaths, around 1848 with approximately 52,000 deaths and around 1866 with approximately 2,200 deaths. Between 1834 and 1874, 11 epidemics of cholera were reported in Sweden, and a total of approximately 37,000 people died during these.

Care of those suffering from cholera

In Åke Jönsson's book about the history of Landskrona, there is a chapter about the Cholera in Borstahusen..

It is said that none of the city's doctors felt they had time to care for the cholera patients. The care was provided by the veterinarian Schultz, who is said to have done so with tireless zeal and care. Later, the responsibility for care was taken over by the medical candidate Alfred Jönsson, who later received an extra 100 riksdaler in salary for his efforts.

Borstahusen was quarantined for several weeks, as was Landskrona. At the Old Cemetery in Malmö, three cholera doctors (IDstory) buried who died 1850-1853.

18-year-old Inger was the last to die

The memorial stone

At an unreadable distance from the nearest alley, there is a slightly weathered memorial stone to the 31 people who died in the cholera in 1853. 18-year-old Inger was the last to die./p>

Today, the stone can also remind us of the horror that even survivors and uninfected people felt when faced with this unknown plague.

Det var vanligt i Europa att de döda inte fick begravas bland andra, utan avvisades till en egen plats. De döda i Borstahusen begravdes så nära stranden, att de frilades av vågorna några decennier senare. 1896 fick de sin sista vila på Landskrona kyrkogård. Se stenen ↓

Dangerous westerly winds

The Landskrona Health College wrote in a report about the cholera in Borstahusen that days with westerly winds and northwesterly winds (sea winds) always showed the largest number of cases.

If we ignore the fact that westerly winds almost always blow in Landskrona, these lines say something important about how cholera was viewed at the time. In the mid-19th century, people had no idea how cholera spread, how to prevent it or how it could be cured. More, about the long controversy over the explanation for the origin and spread of cholera ↓ Om vi bortser ifrån att det nästan alltid blåser västliga vindar i Landskrona, säger dessa rader något viktigt om hur man på den tiden betraktade kolera. I mitten av 1800-talet hade man ingen aning om hur kolera spreds, hur man skulle förhindra den eller hur den kunde botas. Mer, om den långa striden om förklaringen till kolerans uppkomst och spridning ↓

John Snow 1813-1858, is considered one of the world's most prominent doctors. He was an innovator in anesthesiology and proved the transmission routes of cholera. In 1849, his work On the mode of communication of cholera was published.

Cholera via bad air or bad water

During the early 19th century and at the time when the fishing families died in Borstahusen in Landskrona, bad air was the dominant explanation for the emergence and spread of cholera. There were bad substances in the air - miasmata - and these were transferred via the winds to new victims of the disease.

Miasmatism↗ svW was widespread in Europe already during the Middle Ages and was so obvious to medical science in the mid-19th century that competing theories to explain the origin of cholera were met with complete disinterest and denial.

Florence Nightingale↗ svW, who is today a kind of symbol of the good nurse, was only one of many who for the longest time refused to abandon their belief in miasmatism. The members of the many committees that were appointed in England to solve the cholera problem were convinced miasmatists.

Many of those most affected lived in indescribable misery, and it is quite understandable that many believed that cholera originated in these foul-smelling and unsanitary environments.

John Snow began his medical and scientific career by mapping out how ether could be used as an anesthetic during surgical procedures and childbirth. He often experimented on himself. He invented his own device for administering (dosing) ether and sometimes increased his private practice salary by taking the device with him to various hospitals in London. His most famous patient was Queen Victoria, who in 1853 had summoned him for the birth of her eighth child (Prince Leopold) and her ninth child (Princess Beatrice). This meant a lot for the view on pain relief during childbirth

John Snow first worked to understand the use of ether and later chloroform. But the recurring outbreaks of cholera made him wonder how this epidemic spread. He did not know what caused the disease itself, but concentrated on trying to understand how it spread. Today we would say that he was an epidemiologist.

In his work On the Mode of communication of cholera, he showed that cholera was spread through water. Among other things, he mapped out where each affected household on Broad Street in London got their water from. Today it is a famous incident how he managed to convince the authorities to remove the handle from the water pump on Broad Street. Probably not because they believed him, but because they had no other idea of ​​what needed to be done.

Jon Snow's evidence that cholera spreads through water took a long time to establish as truth. The well-known medical journal The Lancet↗ remained silent or ironic about his cholera research. Today, his pioneering work is recognized by all.

Filippo Pacini ↗ enW, 1812-1883,was originally an anatomist, but the great cholera epidemic in Florence around 1845 made him start looking for the cause of cholera.

While John Snow was wandering around the houses on the streets of London, collecting statistics on the water sources, Pacini was sitting in his laboratory, looking through his microscope for the agent (bacillus/bacteria/virus) that caused cholera..

He found what has, since 1966, been called Vibrio cholerae Pacini in 1854. His discovery was forgotten and the cholera vibrio was rediscovered in 1883 by the German scientist Robert Koch ↗ enW. It is called vibrio because the bacillus appears to vibrate when viewed under a microscope.

To cure cholera

Today, cholera is easy to cure. The vast majority of people recover by being rehydrated, i.e., helped to regain their balance of fluids. Only the worst cases, 1-2%, require antibiotics. Research published in The Lancet in 2005, among others, shows that a single dose of ciproflaxin is sufficient to cure cholera in children..

Cholera is hardly seen in Europe and America anymore. In Africa and Asia many tens of thousands of people↗ probably die from cholera every year. Read more at World Health Organization WHO↗.

The gravesite is at Landskrona nya kyrkogård in block 25.

References

• About BiBB, a media company and an encyclopedia 4.0
• Cemetary map
• Åke Jönsson Historien om en stad del 3:115f
• Sandra Hempel The Medical Detective
• Om John Snow (eng)
• Smittskyddsinstitutet om kolera
• Text/photo/web: Johan Schlasberg

Published: 2007.03 Updated: 2025.05.28

Kategorier 20 Historical persons 45 Landskrona 14

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