[Return to the plague-stricken area: Fujiadian]
In the northeast of the late Qing Dynasty, the plague was raging, and Harbin Fujiadian became the center of disaster. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives, and the sight of hell on earth was shocking. The epidemic is fierce, panic is shrouded in the northeast, and everyone is panicking.
The plague, which originated in two patients returning from hunting marmots in Russia, broke out in Harbin and spread at an alarming rate. The virus hit patients, causing fever, coughing, vomiting blood and even death, killing families and turning entire villages into places of death. The people of the northeast were at a loss in panic.
Fujiadian was the hardest hit area of the plague, with more than 7,000 deaths. Imagine that one in every three people could die, a staggering number. The disaster situation in the entire three eastern provinces was also very serious, spreading everywhere, and many international communities felt panic. This speed and scale has never been seen before in the civilized world.
In order to eradicate the plague once and for all, an important battle is about to begin. At this time, Wu Liande, who had served as a deputy supervisor of the Tianjin Army Military Medical Hall, came to Harbin and became the chief medical officer of epidemic prevention in the three eastern provinces. At that time, medical conditions were very limited, and Wu Liande took the method of cutting off the source of infection, blocking the transmission route and protecting high-risk groups.
In the face of the epidemic, masks and disinfectant alcohol and other protective equipment were possessed by the Japanese, and Wu Liande creatively invented the Wu's mask, which became one of the most practical masks at that time. He also proposed centralized burning of corpses, which, although unimaginable in feudal society, was eventually adopted by the Qing court.
In addition, Wu Liande also proposed a series of epidemic prevention measures, such as wearing masks, compulsory disinfection, police inspection, isolation of infected people, etc. He paid particular attention to people at high risk of plague, which he considered to be the focus of the spread of the epidemic. His efforts and measures were successful, and in just 67 days, the plague was virtually over.
On April 3, 1911, after the end of the plague, Wu Liande invited experts from 11 countries to convene the Universal Plague Conference in Shenyang, which was the first international academic conference in Chinese history. Wu Liande is not only the pioneer of modern Chinese medicine, but also the founder of China's epidemic prevention cause. He was even a candidate for the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first Nobel Prize candidate in the Chinese world.
The years of the plague are over, but Wu Liande's name will always be remembered. His anti-epidemic measures provide an important reference for mankind to interrupt the sudden epidemic. And Fujiadian, once the hardest hit area of the plague, is now a prosperous city. The gloom of history is gradually forgotten, and we should always remember those painful years.
