El Mapa Fantasma, Alcantarillas y la Fuente Letal

El Dia del Planeta Tierra esta sobre nosotros y aqui en la Alcantarilla Alquimica no podiamos dejar de pensar en un tema ambiental, de cartografia, de ingenieria, de alcantarillado, de epidemiologia y otras ciencias. Combinalo al ambiente steampunk de Adele Blanc Sec y pongamos ese tema justo en la segunda mitad del Siglo 19. El tema de hoy esta inspirado en, de todas las cosas, un especial de BBC del 2003 enfocado en la epidemia del colera que causo estragos en la capital inglesa para mediados del Siglo 19. Increiblemente fue mi esposa la que me aviso de este especial en V Me (canal 6-3) de la BBC que trataba de alcantarillado y agua infectada. Anoche vi la retransmision. Es un must see, si lo repiten veanlo. Expone cotidianamente la politica y actitudes de la era.

Personalmente tiendo a mostrar interes en las catastrofes, epidemias y tengo inclinacion a peliculas apocalipticas (como sabran por mis referencias a peliculas como Neon Genesis Evangelion, Nausicaa and the Valley of Wind, The Stand, The Rapture, etc.). Pues tenia mucho interes en el tema del colera y me recorde que le explicaba este tema a los operadores que les estaba dando un curso agua potable y aguas usadas. Exponia entonces que una de las grandes invenciones del hombre (y que me da mis habichuelas desde que termine mis estudios) es el alcantarillado. La mierda, hermanos mios, es mana de vida y me sustenta.

En aquel momento, lo vi tan simple, pero en realidad fue algo que tomo como 25 a/nos en resolverse definitivamente. Eso lo descubri en uno de estos libros que estoy loco por leer y no he conseguido titulado The Ghost Map por Steven Johnson. Esta novela narra los eventos en Londres segun ocurrieron. Estoy loco por leer el libro, pero no lo he conseguido. Uno de estos dias. Anyway, aqui el link del autor:
http://www.theghostmap.com/

Del espinazo del libro:

It is the summer of 1854. Cholera has seized London with unprecedented intensity. A metropolis of more than 2 million people, London is just emerging as a one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure necessary to support its dense population - garbage removal, clean water, sewers - the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure.

As their neighbors begin dying, two men are spurred to action: the Reverend Henry Whitehead, whose faith in a benevolent God is shaken by the seemingly random nature of the victims, and Dr. John Snow, whose ideas about contagion have been dismissed by the scientific community, but who is convinced that he knows how the disease is being transmitted. In a riveting day-by-day account, The Ghost Map chronicles the outbreak’s spread and the desperate efforts to put an end to the epidemic - and solve the most pressing medical riddle of the age.

The Ghost Map is the chilling story of urban terror, but it is also a story of how scientific understanding can advance in the most hostile of environments. In a triumph of dynamic, multidisciplinary thinking, Steven Johnson examines the epidemic from the microbial level to the human level to the urban level. Brilliantly illuminating the intertwined histories of the spread of disease, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, Johnson presents both vivid history and a powerful, provocative explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in.

Steven Johnson is the author of the national bestsellers Everything Bad is Good For You and Mind Wide Open as well as Emergence and Interface Culture. He is a Distinguished Writer In Residence at New York University’s Department of Journalism and the founder of several influential websites, including FEED, Plastic, and, currently, outside.in. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three sons.

La discusion se torna interesante cuando comienzan a marcar en un mapa de la ciudad las casas de los muertos y asi trazan la fuente de la colera a una fuente de agua en el 1854 Broad Street. Ahora es buscarlo en Google Earth y marcarlo desde el celular, los mas finos usarian ArcView para marcar la info en un mapa. Este doctor John Snow los marcaba en lapiz en un plano de la ciudad. Se imaginan ustedes un CSI London? London and the Limelight Killer? Esta epidemia del colera fue la que marco y definio la metodologia detras de la epidemiologia moderna...

John Snow era esceptico y no creia en la teoria del miasma. El miasma establecia que el aire malo te mataba al transmitir la plaga o la colera. Saldria aqui lo de que no cojas sereno? Literalmente se creia que habian pestes que mataban. La gente vivia aterrada y se frustraba con los oficiales de salud que buscaban la fuente de emanacion de la peste (debajo caricatura de la epoca). De wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854_Broad_Street_cholera_outbreak):

Snow was a skeptic of the then-dominant miasma theory that stated that diseases such as cholera or the Black Death were caused by pollution or a noxious form of "bad air". The germ theory was not widely accepted by this time, so Snow was unaware of the mechanism by which the disease was transmitted, but evidence led him to believe that it was not due to breathing foul air. He first publicized his theory in an essay On the Mode of Communication of Cholera in 1849. In 1855 a second edition was published, with a much more elaborate investigation of the effect of the water-supply in the Soho, London epidemic of 1854.

By talking to local residents (with the help of Reverend Henry Whitehead), he identified the source of the outbreak as the public water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street).^[1] Although Snow's chemical and microscope examination of a sample of the Broad Street pump water was not able to conclusively prove its danger, his studies of the pattern of the disease were convincing enough to persuade the local council to disable the well pump by removing its handle. Although this action has been popularly reported as ending the outbreak, the epidemic may have already been in rapid decline, as explained by Snow himself:

There is no doubt that the mortality was much diminished, as I said before, by the flight of the population, which commenced soon after the outbreak; but the attacks had so far diminished before the use of the water was stopped, that it is impossible to decide whether the well still contained the cholera poison in an active state, or whether, from some cause, the water had become free from it.

Snow later used a spot map to illustrate how cases of cholera were centred around the pump. He also made a solid use of statistics to illustrate the connection between the quality of the source of water and cholera cases. He showed that the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company was taking water from sewage-polluted sections of the Thames and delivering the water to homes with an increased incidence of cholera. Snow's study was a major event in the history of public health, and can be regarded as the founding event of the science of epidemiology.

La cantidad de esfuerzo requerido para hacer las primeras troncales de alcantarillado en Europa y literalmente desviar rios de aguas usadas fuera de la ciudad a que se diluyeran en el Tamesis fue monumental. Para que tengan una mejor idea les dejo unos links aqui:

water history the 1854 cholera outbreak
http://historyday.coldray.com/process-paper/
http://historyday.coldray.com/the-great-stink/
http://historyday.coldray.com/timeline/
http://historyday.coldray.com/works-cited/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/longview/longview_20030415.shtml
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_medicine_and_allied_sciences/v060/60.4burrell.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_Map

Hey! Parte del libro aca...

http://books.google.com/books?id=cWtglGzhPPEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+ghost+map&source=bl&ots=3Zk0UxCS_L&sig=V1lIRlT3_jYKHP3RD9Rx8diOBdQ&hl=en&ei=US3NS4rPEZKW8ATGkuzZDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ahora, como amarra esto al fiasco del AH1N1? Eso es otra historia.

Tags en Blogalaxia
Siglo 19 colera epidemia John Snow Ghost Map Steven Johnson stephen king