What method was used during the late Qing Dynasty to eliminate the raging plague in only 4 months?

In the history of mankind’s fight against infectious diseases, no disease has ever been as terrifying as the Black Death that occurred in the European Middle Ages in the 1440s and 1950s. In just six years (1347 to 1353), the Black Death claimed the lives of approximately 25 million Europeans, accounting for one-third of the total European population at that time. We modern people all know that the Black Death, also known as plague in medicine, is a severe infectious disease caused by Yersinia pestis. The main source of infection is rats and other rodents.

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The plague had dealt a heavy blow to medieval Europe, but the nightmare of the plague did not only occur at that time. In fact, plague epidemics of varying sizes have occurred in many periods of human history. For us Chinese, the most painful plague experience occurred in Northeast China from 1910 to 1911. This plague, known as "the most serious epidemic plague in the world in the 20th century", claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people in just a few months. For a time, the entire Northeast region could be said to be talking about "rat". . Let’s talk about the ins and outs of this epidemic.

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On October 25, 1910, the first patient infected with plague was found in Manzhouli. In the following two months, the epidemic spread wantonly along the then Middle East Railway, from Hailar and Qiqihar to Harbin, Changchun, and Fengtian (today's Shenyang). Patients infected with the plague died in droves, and the entire Northeast region was shrouded in the shadow of the plague.

In December 1910, the Qing government appointed Wu Liande, deputy supervisor of Tianjin Beiyang Army Medical College, as the chief medical officer with full authority for plague prevention in the three northeastern provinces and rushed to Northeast China to deal with the epidemic. Because the plague is a very serious infectious disease, and the medical conditions were relatively poor at the time, many people had doubts about whether Wu Liande could win this battle against the plague. However, what no one expected was that Wu Liande and his team controlled the epidemic in less than three months. As of March 1, 1911, the death toll from the plague had dropped to zero. A seemingly impossible miracle was realized by Wu Liande. So the question is, what method did Wu Liande use to defeat the epidemic?

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First of all, Wu Liande determined that the epidemic was plague through autopsy of the patient. pneumonic plague. This infectious disease can be spread through breathing and droplets, so the top priority is to effectively control the source of infection and prevent further spread of the epidemic.

Wu Liande sent more than 1,000 soldiers to conduct traffic control along the Chinese-controlled China Eastern Railway. All passengers passing through the railway must be observed for 5 days before being released. At that time, Japan and Tsarist Russia, which were entrenched in Northeast China, also adopted the same method of control. This effectively prevents sick people from spreading the disease during their travels.

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It was still in the late Qing Dynasty, and the vast majority of the people had little knowledge and did not believe in science. After someone in the family dies, they often find ways to smuggle the body out of the city for burial so that it can be buried in peace. However, the corpses of those who died of plague themselves were high-risk sources of infection, and were highly contagious both during the funeral and after burial. Therefore, Wu Liande overcame many obstacles and sent soldiers to conduct door-to-door searches and registrations. If patients were found, they would be sent to designated hospitals immediately. If corpses were found, they would be burned and buried. On the first day of the first lunar month of the third year of Xuantong (1911), more than 2,200 corpses were collectively burned in the public cemetery in the north of Harbin. Many of them were excavated from buried graves. Through this almost iron-fisted approach, Wu Liande's team finally controlled the source of the infection.