Unfortunately, yes. Cholera is still a thing, and I know because I’ve experienced it first hand. I contracted cholera on a service trip in the Dominican Republic. I know what you’re thinking, and no, I did not drink the water; The two other girls that contracted on my trip and I most likely contracted this disease from a home cooked meal that was provided for us, or contaminated water. When we returned home to Ohio, people were appalled by the fact that we contracted cholera. We often got, “Cholera is still a thing? Isn’t it from the 1700s?” Many people had never even heard of the disease—including me. It is quite frightening that many Americans are not aware of a disease that is so easy to contract and that is very common in foreign countries. However, I don’t believe we are to blame, us Americans are aware that clean water is a public good, and we receive clean water without much thought.
People in developing countries such as Haiti and the Dominican Republic die everyday from water born illnesses such as cholera due to dehydration and diarrhea; the saddest part about this is that these diseases and problems are highly curable. I bring up this example of cholera because I believe it really touches on the topic of epidemiology. Haiti, for example, is still fighting cholera as a population as they are currently experiencing the worst breakout of the disease in modern history. The Haitian government has taken as much action as they possibly can to address this issue, and have has provided many cholera clinics (CTC). In terms specific to epidemiology, Haitians are concerned with why people became diseased in the first place, and what the main determinant of this current outbreak may be. Unfortunately, the determinant for cholera in Haiti is what it has always been—people are set in their ways. The link I have provided is an article that talks about the current Haitian cholera outbreak and gives some theories as to why Haiti can’t seem to shake the disease:
http://mosaicscience.com/story/cholera-haiti
-Madeleine Converse
Communicating Health, Science and the Environment 
I find it interesting that they have many cholera clinics in Haiti, but it is still a huge problem. I guess it comes down to the idea of conventional medicine versus public health. Perhaps the Cholera clinic are concerned with treating cholera in its various stages but there main concern is gathering data such as which village the patient is from or they ask questions based on their economic standing, the preventative measure they can take or if they take preventive measure and things like that .
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I’m not sure if people are “stuck in their ways”. Especially in developing countries, the blame shouldn’t be put on the people. If people don’t have access to clean water, they are susceptible to water-borne illness. I think it would be more beneficial if the government attacked to problem with prevention techniques, like water purification rather than treatment techniques, like the clinic. Clearly, the clinics aren’t stopping the spread of cholera.
Jessica Hofelich
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To be honest i didn’t know what it was, or even heard it until said in class. So i can see that disease awareness is slightly low in developed places like the U.S. It is a sad thing.
D. Hopster
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I also was completely unaware of this terrible health crisis going on in Haiti. Personally I feel that the American media isn’t really covering this because of how little it affects our way of life. This unfortunate reality is one of the biggest issues I have about how the media covers worldly health.
-Spencer Clark
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I have known about the health crisis of cholera in Haiti…it’s terrible. However, I am so terribly sorry that you contracted that awful disease…it sounds terrible. I looked it up online and it makes me feel so bad that there isn’t more than can be done because the people are set in their ways. Although I knew about Cholera, I haven’t heard about a lot of the diseases that we’ve talked about in class…makes you think.
Allison Jermer
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