Cholera: Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection (of the intestine) by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.  The causative agent, endemic to India, was discovered only in 1854 by John Snow and Robert Koch. The infection can be symptomless, mild or severe. Approximately 1 in 20 infected persons develops the severe form characterised by diarrhea, vomiting and leg cramps. Rapid loss of fluids leads to dehydration, shock and without treatment, death can occur within hours. Four epidemics in the UK between 1841 and 1866 killed an estimated 140,000 people. 60,000 of these between 1848-49 (¹) Liverpool suffered severely in 1849 in when a major cholera outbreak occurred which was much more widespread and deadly than the more famous 1847 'Liverpool Plague' (Typhus).

Infection is via contaminated water or food. The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequately treated sewage or drinking water. The bacterium may also live in river estuaries and coastal waters, infecting humans who eat raw shellfish. The disease is rarely spread directly from one person to another but in Victorian Britain people who shared an infected water supply, might all develop the disease. As with Typhoid, improved sanitation and clean water supplies have largely eliminated this in Europe although in the 19th Century several pandemics reached and affected Britain.

Tuberculosis: Tuberculosis, TB, or (on many Victorian and Edwardian death certificates 'phthysis') is caused by infection with the slow -growing Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In Victorian England it was a dread disease , called "consumption" for the way the disease caused rapid weight loss. It spread rapidly due to overcrowding and poor nutrition. By the late 1890s, bovine TB and infected meat and milk were of national significance in the UK.

Primary TB is visible as a spot on a chest Xray - the body usually fights this off. The infection can reactivate during stress or old age. TB can affect many organs - small intestine, kidney, skin, bones (the Hunchback of Notre Dame), brain - TB meningitis was a scourge of Victorian children. Pulmonary TB, infecting the lungs is the most common form, presenting as a chronic cough with weight loss, night sweats and often blood is coughed up. Tuberculosis is usually spread by inhaling bacilli coughed out by an infected person, a sufferer being estimated to infect 10-15 people a year (WHO).

Typhoid: Typhoid fever is a serious, infectious, feverish disease with severe symptoms in the digestive system. It is caused by infection with Salmonella typhi.  Typhoid only attacks humans. The bacterium is transmitted via food, drinking water or contact with an infected person - thus hygiene and sanitation determine its spread.

Fatality is 10%-30% in untreated cases, in Victorian Britain, poor nutrition and general poor health no doubt pushed this to the higher end of the scale. With the advent of better sanitation, cleaner drinking water and the development of anitbiotics, it is not commonly seen in Europe but it is not essentially a tropical disease - its spread is related to hygiene and sanitary conditions rather than the climate.

In the mild disease, the bacterium is eliminated very early in the course of the disease and there are only mild symptoms. It is possible to become a healthy carrier of infection. ('Typhoid Mary') The bacterium usually passes to the bowel and penetrates the lining. If the infection is not overcome then it spreads to the bloodstream, causing fever. and can attack the bone marrow, the liver and bile ducts, from which bacteria are excreted into the upper bowel. In the second phase of the disease the bacterium penetrates this tissue and the often violent small-bowel symptoms begin. The disease lasts several weeks and if not fatal thenconvalescence takes some time. It was however fatal to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria at the age of 42.

Typhus: Rickettsia spp. This is NOT Typhoid which is a different disease, although the symptoms may be similar. An acute, infectious disease transmitted by lice and fleas. The epidemic or classic form is louse borne; the endemic or murine is flea borne. Synonyms typhus fever, malignant fever (in the 1850s), jail fever, hospital fever, ship fever, putrid fever, brain fever, bilious fever, spotted fever, Petechial fever, camp fever.  
21,000 (1) people died in Liverpool in 1847. Ten were catholic priests , a protestant minister, ten physicians, and a number of relieving officers working among the sick and dying immigrants.  The Fever sheds on Mount Pleasant opened on 15th April 1847 - about 15,000 deaths occurred by fever (and famine). The 1847 outbreak mainly affected the Vauxhall/Scotland Road area however 7,500 victims  were remembered in 1998 as follows :-

1 W. J. Lowe "The Irish in Mid-Victorian Lancashire" ISBN 0-8204-0999-5.