Studies upon the plague situation in North China / by Wu Lien-teh [and others].

Date:
[1929?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Studies upon the plague situation in North China / by Wu Lien-teh [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/144 (page 288)
    v. At Mukden: The second class waiting room of the station was made the tem¬ porary headquarters of the plague prevention. Doctors stationed there made inspection of third class passengers coming from Ssupingkai. vi. Similar precautions were taken at Changchun where inspection of north-bound travellers was carried out from the beginning of Octo¬ ber by medical officers of the Chinese Eastern Railway. The above measures were started rather late. While inspection of the railway traffic was perhaps carried out more often than would seem necessary, other phases of prophylactic work were evidently not under¬ taken with equal energy. The value of the measures taken against the 1927 epidemic should not be overrated. It is difficult to imagine how the partial “cordon” at the Liao River could have stopped an outbreak comparable in its spreading powers to the pneumonic epidemics of North Manchuria. Fortunately the outbreaks in the Tungliao region seem to have spent their energy on the spot rather than proceeded onwards. C. THE 1928 TUNGLIAO OUTBREAK 1. First stages. It might seem strange after reading the foregoing pages that the possibility of a recrudescence of plague in the Tungliao region was not seriously anticipated. However, it should be remembered that the existence of suspicious cases during the years 1924-26 only became generally known after the presence of plague at Chien-Chia-1 ien had been established on September 7, 1928 by Dr. Chun of our Service (see Appendix No. 4). There was little doubt that plague had occurred in the region north of the Liao River in 1927. The fact, however, that this outbreak was closely connected with the extraordinary event of the Pantsan Lama’s visit tended to allay the suspicion of endemicity in or near the affected districts, particularly as it seemed to assume later on a pneumonic nature. Even when plague was already prevalent in the regions north of Tungliao in 1928, it was by no means easy to establish its presence. An early trip undertaken by me in the middle of August elicited only vague information (see Appendix No. 8) while Japanese specialists from Dairen as late as Sept. 5 were not sure whether it was plague or cholera.