Medicine: Cholera in Calcutta

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The food markets of "filthy Calcutta" display their uncovered wares near drains and open latrines, sprinkle them with unfiltered water. It is an open invitation to cholera, one of the dread diseases of the East.

Last week, once again, a cholera epidemic raged in Calcutta; there were 80 new cases daily. At the Grand Hotel, chief rendezvous of Allied fighting men on leave in the CBI theater, 15 British soldiers had fallen ill and a U.S. Negro orchestra leader had died. The disease was spreading like fire through the city, packed with thousands of U.S. and British soldiers. Although 29 British soldiers had come down with it, not one U.S. serviceman had yet been infected—thanks to the U.S. Army's compulsory vaccination rule.