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How did trade routes spread the first cholera pandemic beyond India?
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cholera
A woman with cholera being treated by nurses at St. Nicholas Hospital in Saint-Marc, Haiti, 2010.
The first cholera pandemic, which began in 1817 in the Ganges delta of India, marked the first time the disease spread widely beyond the Indian subcontinent via trade routes.12
Following its initial outbreak in Jessore, the disease moved through Burma and Ceylon, eventually reaching Siam, Indonesia, and the Philippines by 1820. The pandemic expanded significantly through established commercial networks, traveling from Arabia along trade routes to the eastern African and Mediterranean coasts. By 1821, the disease had reached Basra, Iraq, and subsequently spread through Turkey, reaching the threshold of Europe.12