Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Asiatic Cholera And Dysentery On The Oregon Trail: A Historical Medical Geography Study, Brian Lee Altonen

Dissertations and Theses

Two disease regions existed on the Oregon Trail. Asiatic cholera impacted the Platte River flood plain from 1849 to 1852. Dysentery developed two endemic foci due to the decay of buffalo carcasses in eastern and middle Nebraska between 1844 and 1848, but later developed a much larger endemic region west of this Great Plains due to the infection of livestock carcasses by opportunistic bacteria.

This study demonstrates that whereas Asiatic cholera diffusion along the Trail was defined primarily by human population features, topography, and regional climate along the Platte River flood plain, the distribution of opportunistic dysentery along the Trail …