Our public health legacy

The views of the author on the effects of yellow fever carnage in Philadelphia, Pa., which prompted the federal government to create the US Public Health Service in the year 1798 are discussed. Cholera returned to Europe in the year 1831 as thousands of muslims who had made pilgrimage to Mecca returned home. Dr. John Snow's investigations in London, England, linking cholera to contaminated water resulted in the decline of death rate. In the year 1883, Robert Koch isolated Vibrio cholera as the causative organism of cholera and scientists soon discovered the pathogens responsible for typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. AWWA has played a key role in bringing waterborne diseases under control. Author observed that the filtration, disinfections, source protection, proper waste collection, and treatment have banished waterborne disease from developed nations.