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47-407: Charleston Harbor was a major port of entry for slave ships transporting slaves from West Africa. Due to its status as a slave capital, “Scholars estimate that over forty percent of all enslaved Africans sent to North America entered through Charleston Harbor — making Charleston the largest North American point of disembarkation for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.” The harbor contains Fort Sumter ,

94-570: A lack of market forces for research and development. Most vaccine development efforts are taking place in the public sector or as research programs within biotechnology companies. Dysentery is managed by maintaining fluids using oral rehydration therapy . If this treatment cannot be adequately maintained due to vomiting or the profuseness of diarrhea, hospital admission may be required for intravenous fluid replacement. In ideal situations, no antimicrobial therapy should be administered until microbiological microscopy and culture studies have established

141-473: A low-grade fever . Rapid weight loss and muscle aches sometimes also accompany dysentery, while nausea and vomiting are rare. On rare occasions, the amoebic parasite will invade the body through the bloodstream and spread beyond the intestines . In such cases, it may more seriously infect other organs such as the brain , lungs , and most commonly the liver . Dysentery results from bacterial , or parasitic infections. Viruses do not generally cause

188-662: A notable career in Royal Navy service and was responsible for capturing a number of slave ships and freeing many hundreds of slaves. Attempts have been made by descendants of African slaves to sue Lloyd's of London for playing a key role in underwriting insurance policies taken out on slave ships bringing slaves from Africa to the Americas. Dysentery Dysentery ( UK : / ˈ d ɪ s ən t ər i / DISS -ən-tər-ee , US : / ˈ d ɪ s ən t ɛr i / DISS -ən-terr-ee ), historically known as

235-463: A week. If the case is severe, antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin or TMP-SMX may be useful. However, many strains of Shigella are becoming resistant to common antibiotics, and effective medications are often in short supply in developing countries. If necessary, a doctor may have to reserve antibiotics for those at highest risk for death, including young children, people over 50, and anyone suffering from dehydration or malnutrition. Amoebic dysentery

282-525: A week. The frequency of urges to defecate, the large volume of liquid feces ejected, and the presence of blood, mucus, or pus depends on the pathogen causing the disease. Temporary lactose intolerance can occur, as well. In some occasions, severe abdominal cramps, fever , shock , and delirium can all be symptoms. In extreme cases, people may pass more than one liter of fluid per hour. More often, individuals will complain of diarrhea with blood , accompanied by extreme abdominal pain, rectal pain and

329-472: A year. It commonly occurs in less developed areas of Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. Dysentery has been described at least since the time of Hippocrates . The most common form of dysentery is bacillary dysentery, which is typically a mild sickness, causing symptoms normally consisting of mild abdominal pains and frequent passage of loose stools or diarrhea. Symptoms normally present themselves after 1–3 days, and are usually no longer present after

376-440: Is a longstanding World Health Organization (WHO) target for vaccine development, and sharp declines in age-specific diarrhea/dysentery attack rates for this pathogen indicate that natural immunity does develop following exposure; thus, vaccination to prevent this disease should be feasible. The development of vaccines against these types of infection has been hampered by technical constraints, insufficient support for coordination, and

423-512: Is also in contrast to toxins that cause watery diarrhea, which usually do not cause cellular damage, but rather they take over cellular machinery for a portion of life of the cell. Definitions of dysentery can vary by region and by medical specialty. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) limits its definition to "diarrhea with visible blood". Others define the term more broadly. These differences in definition must be taken into account when defining mechanisms. For example, using

470-413: Is often treated with two antimicrobial drugs such as metronidazole and paromomycin or iodoquinol . With correct treatment, most cases of amoebic and bacterial dysentery subside within 10 days, and most individuals achieve a full recovery within two to four weeks after beginning proper treatment. If the disease is left untreated, the prognosis varies with the immune status of the individual patient and

517-407: Is particularly common in parts of the world where human feces are used as fertilizer. After entering the person's body through the mouth, the cyst travels down into the stomach. The amoebae inside the cyst are protected from the stomach's digestive acid. From the stomach, the cyst travels to the intestines, where it breaks open and releases the amoebae, causing the infection. The amoebae can burrow into

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564-404: Is restricted by convention to Shigella dysentery. Some strains of Escherichia coli cause bloody diarrhea. The typical culprits are enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli , of which O157:H7 is the best known. These types of E. coli also make Shiga toxin. A diagnosis may be made by taking a history and doing a brief examination. Dysentery should not be confused with hematochezia , which

611-424: Is the passage of fresh blood through the anus, usually in or with stools. The mouth, skin, and lips may appear dry due to dehydration. Lower abdominal tenderness may also be present. Cultures of stool samples are examined to identify the organism causing dysentery. Usually, several samples must be obtained due to the number of amoebae, which changes daily. Blood tests can be used to measure abnormalities in

658-604: Is too shallow for Post-Panamax ships. The largest ships must carry less cargo, wait for favorable tide conditions, or combine these two approaches to reach port in Charleston. As of 2015, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to design a deepening of the channels to 52 feet. The harbor deepening project was spurred on by the Panama Canal's recent expansion in an effort to handle the larger ships traveling from Panama without facing restrictions listed above. As of May 2017,

705-695: The bloody flux , is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea . Other symptoms may include fever , abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation . Complications may include dehydration . The cause of dysentery is usually the bacteria from genus Shigella , in which case it is known as shigellosis , or the amoeba Entamoeba histolytica ; then it is called amoebiasis . Other causes may include certain chemicals, other bacteria, other protozoa, or parasitic worms . It may spread between people. Risk factors include contamination of food and water with feces due to poor sanitation . The underlying mechanism involves inflammation of

752-497: The developing world . While medications used to decrease diarrhea such as loperamide are not recommended on their own, they may be used together with antibiotics. Shigella results in about 165 million cases of diarrhea and 1.1 million deaths a year with nearly all cases in the developing world. In areas with poor sanitation nearly half of cases of diarrhea are due to Entamoeba histolytica . Entamoeba histolytica affects millions of people and results in more than 55,000 deaths

799-404: The intestine , especially of the colon . Efforts to prevent dysentery include hand washing and food safety measures while traveling in countries of high risk. While the condition generally resolves on its own within a week, drinking sufficient fluids such as oral rehydration solution is important. Antibiotics such as azithromycin may be used to treat cases associated with travelling in

846-453: The CDC definition requires that intestinal tissue be so severely damaged that blood vessels have ruptured, allowing visible quantities of blood to be lost with defecation. Other definitions require less specific damage. Amoebiasis , also known as amoebic dysentery, is caused by an infection from the amoeba Entamoeba histolytica , which is found mainly in tropical areas. Proper treatment of

893-572: The Netherlands also agreed to abolish their slave trade. The trade did not end on legal abolition; between 1807 and 1860 British vessels captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 160,000 slaves. After abolition, slave ships adopted quicker, more maneuverable forms to evade capture by naval warships, one favorite form being the Baltimore Clipper . Some had hulls fitted with copper sheathing , which significantly increased speed by preventing

940-418: The abolition of slavery. For the first time, limits were placed on the number of slaves that could be carried. Under the terms of the act, ships could transport 1.67 slaves per ton up to a maximum of 207 tons burthen, after which only one slave per ton could be carried. The well-known slave ship Brookes was limited to carrying 454 people; it had previously transported as many as 609 enslaved. Olaudah Equiano

987-471: The crew were far better than those of the slaves, they remained harsh and contributed to a high death rate. Sailors often had to live and sleep without shelter on the open deck for the entirety of the Atlantic voyage, as the space below deck was occupied by slaves. Disease, specifically malaria and yellow fever, was the most common cause of death among sailors. A high crew mortality rate on the return voyage

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1034-507: The deaths of slaves on board slave ships. Firsthand accounts from former slaves, such as Olaudah Equiano , describe the horrific conditions that slaves were forced to endure. The Slave Trade Act 1788 , also known as Dolben's Act, regulated conditions on board British slave ships for the first time since the slave trade started. It was introduced to the United Kingdom Parliament by Sir William Dolben , an advocate for

1081-439: The disease. These pathogens typically reach the large intestine after entering orally, through ingestion of contaminated food or water, oral contact with contaminated objects or hands, and so on. Each specific pathogen has its own mechanism or pathogenesis, but in general, the result is damage to the intestinal linings, leading to the inflammatory immune responses . This can cause elevated physical temperature , painful spasms of

1128-653: The federal government to dredge the channels of the harbor to a depth of 17 feet. This deepening work was interrupted by the Civil War and was not completed until after the war's end. The jetties at the entrance to the harbor were constructed between 1878 and 1886. The harbor includes public terminals owned and operated by the South Carolina Ports Authority , as well as private terminals. Existing federal channels are dredged to an authorized depth of 45 feet below mean lower low water . This depth

1175-405: The growth of marine weed on the hull, which would otherwise cause drag. This was very expensive, and at the time was only commonly fitted to Royal Navy vessels. The speed of slave ships made them attractive ships to repurpose for piracy, and also made them attractive for naval use after capture; USS  Nightingale and HMS  Black Joke were examples of such vessels. HMS Black Joke had

1222-633: The human expansion out of Africa 50,000 to 200,000 years ago. The seed, leaves, and bark of the kapok tree have been used in traditional medicines by indigenous peoples of the rainforest regions in the Americas, west-central Africa, and Southeast Asia in the treatment of this disease. In 1915, Australian bacteriologist Fannie Eleanor Williams was serving as a medic in Greece with the Australian Imperial Force , receiving casualties directly from Gallipoli . In Gallipoli, dysentery

1269-445: The intestinal muscles ( cramping ), swelling due to fluid leaking from capillaries of the intestine ( edema ) and further tissue damage by the body's immune cells and the chemicals, called cytokines , which are released to fight the infection. The result can be impaired nutrient absorption, excessive water and mineral loss through the stools due to breakdown of the control mechanisms in the intestinal tissue that normally remove water from

1316-466: The levels of essential minerals and salts . Efforts to prevent dysentery include hand washing and food safety measures while traveling in areas of high risk. Although there is currently no vaccine that protects against Shigella infection, several are in development. Vaccination may eventually become a part of the strategy to reduce the incidence and severity of diarrhea, particularly among children in low-resource settings. For example, Shigella

1363-550: The long Middle Passage . They were confined to cargo holds, with each slave chained with little room to move. The most significant routes of the slave ships led from the north-western and western coasts of Africa to South America and the south-east coast of what is today the United States, and the Caribbean . As many as 20 million Africans were transported by ship. The transportation of slaves from Africa to America

1410-429: The overcrowding on slave ships may have reduced the on-board death rate, but this is disputed by some historians. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the sailors on slave ships were often poorly paid and subject to brutal discipline and treatment. Furthermore, a crew mortality rate of around 20% was expected during a voyage, with sailors dying as a result of disease, flogging, or slave uprisings. While conditions for

1457-432: The owners of the ships divided their hulls into holds with little headroom, so they could transport as many slaves as possible. Unhygienic conditions, dehydration , dysentery , and scurvy led to a high mortality rate , on average 15% and up to a third of captives. Often, the ships carried hundreds of slaves, who were chained tightly to plank beds. For example, the slave ship Henrietta Marie carried about 200 slaves on

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1504-426: The person's body in the feces and can survive outside the body. If hygiene standards are poor – for example, if the person does not dispose of the feces hygienically – then it can contaminate the surroundings, such as nearby food and water. If another person then eats or drinks food or water that has been contaminated with feces containing the cyst, that person will also become infected with the amoebae. Amoebic dysentery

1551-531: The project will cost around $ 500 million, with $ 317.5 million federally allocated. Port officials plan to make the Charleston Harbor the deepest harbor on the East Coast by the end of the decade. Slave ships Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves . Such ships were also known as " Guineamen " because

1598-442: The severity of disease. Extreme dehydration can delay recovery and significantly raises the risk for serious complications including death. Insufficient data exists, but Shigella is estimated to have caused the death of 34,000 children under the age of five in 2013, and 40,000 deaths in people over five years of age. Amoebiasis infects over 50 million people each year, of whom 50,000 die (one per thousand). Shigella evolved with

1645-571: The site of the first shots of the American Civil War . Charleston Harbor was also the site of the first successful submarine attack in history on February 17, 1864, when the H.L. Hunley made a daring night attack on the USS Housatonic , during the American Civil War . The 12-foot natural depth of the harbor was a major reason for the establishment and growth of Charleston. The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1852 authorized

1692-478: The specific infection involved. When laboratory services are not available, it may be necessary to administer a combination of drugs, including an amoebicidal drug to kill the parasite , and an antibiotic to treat any associated bacterial infection. Laudanum (Deodorized Tincture of Opium)] may be used for severe pain and to combat severe diarrhea. If shigellosis is suspected and it is not too severe, letting it run its course may be reasonable – usually less than

1739-454: The stools, and in severe cases, the entry of pathogenic organisms into the bloodstream. Anemia may also arise due to the blood loss through diarrhea. Bacterial infections that cause bloody diarrhea are typically classified as being either invasive or toxogenic. Invasive species cause damage directly by invading into the mucosa. The toxogenic species do not invade, but cause cellular damage by secreting toxins, resulting in bloody diarrhea. This

1786-649: The trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast in West Africa. In the early 1600s, more than a century after the arrival of Europeans to the Americas , demand for unpaid labor to work plantations made slave-trading a profitable business. The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the last two decades of the 18th century, during and following the Kongo Civil War . To ensure profitability ,

1833-413: The underlying infection of amoebic dysentery is important; insufficiently treated amoebiasis can lie dormant for years and subsequently lead to severe, potentially fatal, complications . When amoebae inside the bowel of an infected person are ready to leave the body, they group together and form a shell that surrounds and protects them. This group of amoebae is known as a cyst, which is then passed out of

1880-404: The walls of the intestines and cause small abscesses and ulcers to form. The cycle then begins again. Dysentery may also be caused by shigellosis , an infection by bacteria of the genus Shigella , and is then known as bacillary dysentery (or Marlow syndrome). The term bacillary dysentery etymologically might seem to refer to any dysentery caused by any bacilliform bacteria, but its meaning

1927-435: Was among the supporters of the act, but it was opposed by some abolitionists, such as William Wilberforce , who feared it would establish the idea that the slave trade simply needed reform and regulation, rather than complete abolition. Slave counts can also be estimated by deck area rather than registered tonnage, which results in a lower number of errors and only 6% deviation from reported figures. This limited reduction in

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1974-414: Was in the captain's interests, as it reduced the number of sailors who had to be paid on reaching the home port. Crew members who survived were frequently cheated out of their wages on their return. These aspects of the slave trade were widely known; the notoriety of slave ships amongst sailors meant those joining slave ship crews did so through coercion or because they could find no other employment. This

2021-735: Was known as the Middle Passage of the triangular trade . The owners of slave ships embarked as many slaves as possible to make the voyage more profitable. They did so by cramming, chaining, and selectively grouping slaves to maximize the use of space. Slaves began to die of lack of oxygen due to these cramped conditions. Portuguese lawmakers passed the Tonnage Act of 1684 in order to slightly improve conditions. Slaves on board were underfed and brutally treated, causing many to die before even arriving at their destination; dead or dying slaves were dumped overboard. An average of one to two months

2068-645: Was needed to complete the journey. The slaves were naked and shackled together with several different types of chains, stored on the floor beneath bunks with little to no room to move. Some captains assigned slave guardians to watch over and keep the other slaves in check. They spent a large portion of time pinned to floorboards, which would wear skin on their elbows down to the bone. Diseases such as dysentery , diarrhea , ophthalmoparesis , malaria , smallpox, yellow fever, scurvy, measles, typhoid fever, hookworm, tapeworm, sleeping sickness, trypanosomiasis , yaws, syphilis, leprosy, elephantiasis, and melancholia resulted in

2115-582: Was often the case for sailors who had spent time in prison. Black sailors are known to have been among the crews of British slave ships. These men came from Africa or the Caribbean, or were British-born. Dozens of individuals have been identified by researchers from surviving records. Knowledge of this is incomplete, though, as many captains did not record the ethnicity of crew members in their ship's muster roll . African men (and occasionally African women) also served as translators. The African slave trade

2162-689: Was outlawed by the United States and the United Kingdom in 1807. The 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act outlawed the slave trade throughout the British Empire . The U.S. law took effect on 1 January 1808. After that date, all U.S. and British slave ships leaving Africa were seen by the law as pirate vessels subject to capture by the U.S. Navy or Royal Navy . In 1815, at the Council of Vienna , Spain, Portugal, France, and

2209-528: Was severely affecting soldiers and causing significant loss of manpower. Williams carried out serological investigations into dysentery, co-authoring several groundbreaking papers with Sir Charles Martin , director of the Lister Institute . The result of their work into dysentery was increased demand for specific diagnostics and curative sera. Bacillus subtilis was marketed throughout America and Europe from 1946 as an immunostimulatory aid in

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