Plague and local response in North China, 1900–28

Bibliographic Data

ID7280536
AuthorsCaroline Reeves (Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies Harvard University United States, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume48
IssueS1
Pagese12629-e12629
Publication date2024-06-14
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDisasters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/disa.12629
PMID38872583
OpenAlexW4399683630
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited19

Breakthroughs in international biomedical science circa 1900 meant that plague could be contained through strict quarantine regulations. These measures were successfully deployed with help from local governments during outbreaks of pneumonic plague in Manchuria (1910–11), Shanxi (1918), and elsewhere in North China. This containment shows the effectiveness of uniting international knowledge and local cooperation in disaster response. Yet, in later outbreaks in similar locations, control measures identical to those instituted a decade earlier were rejected, and plague spread largely unchecked. Historical case studies of the control and spread of infectious disease in North China reveal the complexities of the relationship between global knowledge and its broader, local integration, variation in what constitutes effective ‘local’ cooperation in adopting international knowledge, and the paramount importance of the locality to the landscape of disaster response. History can reveal critical issues in localisation of disaster response still salient today

Archaeology · Biological warfare · Biology · China · Emergency response · Geography · Locality · Medical emergency · Outbreak · Plague (disease · Political science · Quarantine · Salient · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Medicine · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research · Zoonotic diseases and public health · Ecology · Virology

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