HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF PLAGUE IN CHINA

Abstract

Study of Chinese manuscripts and classic works of Chinese medicine shows that plague as a pestilential disease has been known in China since antiquity. During the intensive development of trade routes by means of sailing (wooden fleets, and also unsanitarily maintained steam fleets) numerous cases of ship-borne infected rats from plague foci of the southern seas occurred, leading to outbreaks and epidemics of port plague. Progress in ship-building, and also in the system of rat extermination and quarantine measures sharply remedied the situation. At present, the entry of plagues by sea is extremely rare (only 2% of ocean-going ships are infested with rats). As a result, port plague in China during the last several decades has essentially disappeared. This permits a better understanding of the structure of foci which have retained their activity until recent times.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1964
Accession Number
AD0648103

Entities

People

  • V. A. Kraminskii

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Animals
  • Asia
  • Blood Coagulation
  • Central Asia
  • China
  • Death
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Enzootic
  • Epidemics
  • Far East
  • Geography
  • Hong Kong
  • Infection
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Medical Personnel
  • Quarantine
  • Rodents

Readers

  • Infectious Disease/Epidemiology
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.