Politiche di contrasto al colera e mutamento istituzionale nell'Ottocento italiano

The cholera pandemics, which afflicted the Italian population along the 19th century, resulted in crucial experiences for State and local institutions, compelling them to adopt a new organization and to modernize their policies in order to face the sanitary challenge. But the reaction was rather slow and varied significantly from place to place, according to the effort communal authorities were willing to carry out, postponing urban property interest to collective health. On its part, only in the late Eighties would national Government take stronger responsibility in fighting the infection, as the necessity of investing on public health and urban hygiene was made thoroughly clear by the tragic mortality rate reached in some cities. This new approach, associated with international medical progress, quickly led to cholera’s definite defeat.