The Manchurian Plague
By: Ben Kageyama
Tags: Nonfiction, Health, History, Covid 19, Science

As of the time of this writing, a new and more contagious strain of the Coronavirus has been reported in the United Kingdom. Initial findings state that it spreads 70% faster than the original one that we are all too familiar with. It's horrible news going into the start of 2021 and only further underlines the need for masks and other personal protective equipment.

For those of you who refuse to believe the evidence of its protection, I offer a page from medical history: the Manchurian Plague of 1910. It was an event widely credited for making the use of personal protective equipment a standard in efforts to stop the spread of disease.

How did it start?

A Tarbagan marmot, by Stephane Magnenat, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Most experts believe that the plague started from an infected Tarbagan marmot. These rodents were usually hunted because locals turned their fur into clothes for trade.

The disease's spread was further intensified when marmot hunters started taking more and more fur for the harsh winter months. International traders from Japan and Russia created even more demand for the fur, spiking up the value for marmot hides. And while most local hunters disposed of diseased marmots for food, they did not do the same for its hides — given that they were compensated well for it.

Slowly but surely, locals started experiencing headaches, fevers, coughs, and shortness of breath. And since the period lacked the medical advancements we have today, the disease's mortality rate was incredibly high.

Similar to our current pandemic, all this was magnified when people started traveling to see their families for the Chinese New Year. The disease followed the railway systems locals were using to get home. It spread across Beijing, Wuhan, and was even noted to be in some parts of Shanghai, almost 2,000 miles from the first reported case.

In Manzhouli, an Inner Mongolian town, piles of corpses were left on the streets. The few hospitals that were in the area couldn’t accommodate the sick, so railway freight cars were used as quarantine wards.

How did authorities handle it?

Mass cremation workers for Manchurian plague victims (1911), by Dr. Richard Pearson Strong, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Dr. Wu Lien-teh, a Cambridge schooled physician, led the Chinese medical efforts against the deadly plague. His main approach, which was innovative for the time, was an emphasis on the wearing of cloth face masks and other personal protective equipment.

Wu also implemented harsh forms of quarantine, isolation, and travel restrictions. He would go as far as burning down houses with a known high infection rate.

With his efforts, the disease was at least contained to China’s Manchurian region, as opposed to being a nationwide health crisis. But what Wu is truly significant for was his ability to call for a multinational medical response against the plague. He held an international Plague Conference in Mukden in April 1911, and it was the first of its kind. The conference perhaps laid the foundation for the World Health Organization we have today.

However, while there was an international team of doctors, epidemiologists, and nurses handling the situation, not everybody agreed with Wu’s approach of using masks and personal protective equipment.

A French doctor named Gerald Mesny catered to those in quarantine but refused to wear a mask. After just a few days from starting his medical mission, Dr. Mesny died from being infected by one of his patients. He is among the 60,000 lives the plague took from this world.

Final Thoughts

Personal protective equipment for the pneumonic plague (1910–1911), from the Wellcome Collection Gallery, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

We’ve come a long way from crude forms of personal protective equipment and experimental vaccines. Although much smaller in scale, the Manchurian plague parallels the hardships and medical responses of this year’s pandemic.

I hope this page from medical history encourages you to trust medical professionals when they tell you to wear your mask and practice social distancing.