Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Iranology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
2
Archeology, Azad University, Tehran, Iran
10.30476/rhm.2025.102586.1216
Abstract
Cholera, which has been referred to as an illness, a specific disease, and an epidemic, spread in Shiraz in 1917 and 1918 due to several factors, including World War I, drought, locust infestations, and civil wars. The spread of this disease is closely related to non-compliance with health principles. Issues, such as food shortages, a lack of sanitary and medical supplies, and contaminated water, have led to a decline in hygiene, physical weakness, and an increase in infections. That year, one hundred people died every day due to contracting the disease. In October of the same year, Abdolhossein Mirza Farmanfarma, the ruler of Fars, began constructing seven poorhouses in Shiraz. Coinciding with his efforts, the cholera epidemic was ongoing. The poorhouses were tasked with providing food, clothing, coal, sheets, and shelter for the poor and orphans, and their construction helped reduce the spread of cholera. The establishment of a free cholera hospital along with the poorhouses, and efforts, such as transporting and burying the bodies of the dead, providing safe water and food, supplying coal and heating during winter, promoting immunity, gathering the needy, assisting in infection prevention, adhering to treatment principles, and providing medicine-all contributed to decreasing the rate of cholera infection.
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