Often then called 'Indian Cholera' or 'Cholera Morbus', the outbreak of Cholera in Sunderland in 1831 was the first occurrence of the disease in the United Kingdom.
The local authorities' failure to control the disease, and their initial attempts to deny its existence contributed to the demands for responsible government and the uniting of the three parishes in the Borough of Sunderland in 1836.
The scientists with major contributions to fighting cholera were John Snow, who found the link between cholera and drinking water in 1854, and Robert Koch, who identified Vibrio cholerae as the bacillus causing the disease. The bacterium was originally isolated thirty years earlier by Italian anatomist Filippo Pacini, but his results were not widely known.
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