The ghost of the cholera epidemic that took control of Zaragoza in 1971.

Epidemics and diseases have been a constant occurrence in human history. Some of them were so famous that they gave wings to literature and cinema, for example, the plague epidemics that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages and also affected our territory. ActuallyThe last plague of which we have evidence occurred in Zaragoza in 1820.

Just 4 years ago, we experienced a global pandemic. Covid has changed the behavior of these pathologies due to the speed of their spread and total globalization. The Aragonese community suffered its consequences, like the rest of the planet. But although This is the latest and one of the deadliest – more than 5,000 people have died from covid in Aragon – it is not the only deadly epidemic we have known in recent years.

Those who were born in the 50s and 60s still remember this. In the summer of 1971, several cases of cholera appeared in Epile and Rueda. In particular, 7 people were affected by this bacterial disease, and although the symptoms were mild, it was enough to mobilize the authorities on our territory and abroad, given the danger that these cases were just the beginning of an epidemic wreaking havoc. our continent since the mid-19th century.

Authorities are mobilizing in the face of the danger that this is the beginning of a new epidemic that has wreaked havoc in Europe since the 19th century.

It was July 20, 1971, when HERALDO repeated some of the events that were already spreading like wildfire among the residents of the affected municipalities. This newspaper published it”Several municipalities in the Jalón basin experienced higher rates of diarrheal disease. summer than usual at that time.” But although it was not named, it was widely known that it was anger.

The entire population of Zaragoza has been vaccinated.

With memories still fresh in the Aragon capital of a previous cholera epidemic it suffered in 1885, which killed nearly 1,400 people, authorities have called for all its residents to be vaccinated. In just two days, 429,000 people were vaccinated in Zaragoza and its province. There were long lines of citizens outside the doors of vaccination centers waiting for their turn.

“The entire population of Zaragoza is practically vaccinated. and large areas of the province were completely covered, with particular attention paid to the Jalón region and the Ebro basin, up to Caspe,” can be read on the front page of HERALDO of July 23.

Fears of a cholera epidemic in the heart of Spain have attracted the attention of national and foreign authorities, who have continued to study the diagnosed cases. The findings were positive, and health authorities said that although there was an epidemic outbreak of diarrhea in the Halona basin, “it is ideally located in the area and “It doesn’t affect the rest of the province or Spain at all.”

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In this sense, the World Health Organization issued a statement explaining that “The cases were clinically mild and there were no deaths. “No new cases have been reported.”They stated and also concluded that the area would be under surveillance and that the source of the outbreak had not been identified. The opening of HERALDO on that day, July 23, reflected the fear that existed in the country: “There is no risk of epidemic in Spain.”

1885 precedent

Cholera entered Europe from India in 1830, although it took several more years to reach the Iberian Peninsula. In 1835 he arrived via Vigo, accompanied by a British ship and its crew. Since then, It appeared throughout the country until it was Zaragoza’s turn in 1885. and many cities in the province that were also affected.

On June 30, it was announced that cholera had affected several towns in the Jalón Basin and that thirty deaths had already been recorded: “Cholera finally made its presence felt in Aragon and spread to the coastal towns of Jalón.“, recalled HERALDO on October 12, Pilar Day 1971, just a month after the end of the threat of the seven cases of Rueda and Epila.

This time, cholera soon reached the capital, and the city rushed to fight the epidemic. District assemblies and health centers were established as relief homes, and the public was asked not to eat raw vegetables. There were even concerns that the canal water from which the city drank was contaminated.

although after analysis it was rejected.

Three months later, on September 24, the epidemic that caused more than 14,600 infected in a population of 91,000 souls. 1,396 people died, which is almost 10% of the cases.

Zaragoza: “Very profitable”

Next year, Queen Regent Maria Cristina, “Taking into account the humane feelings of Christian charity, inexhaustible philanthropy and courageous fortitude, which the surroundings of the province of the Very Noble, Very Faithful, Heroic and Always Heroic city of Zaragoza provided relevant and unequivocal evidence during the invasion of the cholera epidemic”, authorized the city council and the provincial council added to their titles “Very Beneficial”, which was also awarded to the inhabitants of Zaragoza and their descendants.recalled HERALDO journalist Jose V. LaSierra in 1971.