Revisioning John Snow’s Cholera

The rhythm created from the incident cases in John Snow’s Cholera Map can be divided into the proportions represented by the divine ratio, a relationship purported to be ubiquitous within nature and art. This ratio also represents biological development, exemplified by the growth of calciferous shells. The swirling, self-referential images of map and shell are related conceptually as well as aesthetically. With the effects of global climate change, recent changes in ocean temperatures have allowed for increased growth and mass dispersion of the etiological agent of cholera disease, Vibrio cholerae. Subsequently the shellfish feeding on these bacteria transmit disease when they are consumed by humans. Modern GIS mapping technologies are used to track warming ocean currents where changes in plankton and bacterial growth could lead to potential pathogenic niches and subsequent human disease outbreaks. Using this surveillance data in a timely manner may lead to intervention to prevent such outbreaks. Just as Snow’s map of cholera incidence led to the removal of the handle on the Broad street pump and arrest of a cholera outbreak, the use of GIS to present spatial and temporal changes predicting disease patterns may lead to intervention preventing modern-day outbreak. This work touches on the revisioning of two dimensional representations of three dimensional spaces.