The cholera belt was a flat strip of (usually red) flannel or knitted wool, about six feet long and six inches wide, that was wrapped around the bare abdomen. The item was standard army issue, and was purported to prevent the wearer from contracting cholera, dysentery, and other ailments believed to be caused by chilling of the abdomen. The belts use continued decades after the causative link between pathogen-contaminated drinking water and cholera was established.[1]