The Medical Detective: John Snow [14min @29:35]

John Snow was an austere, unassuming doctor in Victorian London who revolutionised public health by solving the mystery of cholera. Hundreds of thousands of people died in massive cholera epidemics across Europe in the nineteenth century, but it took John Snow's painstaking investigations to pinpoint the cause in contaminated drinking water. Sandra Hempel talks to Frederick Dove about her new biography of Snow; and we also hear from Medecins sans Frontieres in Angola, where a serious outbreak of cholera has so far affected around 13,000 people. The Medical Detective by Sandra Hempel is published by Granta Books.