Abstract

The paper aims to shed new light on efforts by various European countries to prevent the epidemic through international co-operation in the nineteenth century when the cholera epidemic frequently attacked Europe. In the early days of the cholera outbreak, European countries relied only on indiscriminate quarantine measures to prevent damage. As a result, international trade and commerce had been thrown into great confusion. In order to prevent such confusion, the International Sanitary Conference tried to come up with a common standard for quarantine and sanitary measures. Through several sanitary conferences, European countries were able to reduce cholera damage by developing standardized responses using modern medical knowledge.<BR>In the process, Britain, the hegemonic power of the day, took a passive attitude, and other countries, including France and Austria, led the conferences. Historians call this effort to solve the problems at hand through international co-operation in the late 19th century a new internationalist movement. This new internationalist movement led to the establishment of a permanent organization called the Office international d’hygiène publiqye in 1907. In the age of the coronavirus outbreak, international co-operation and quarantine led by the existing WHO are losing power. Nowadays many countries are returning to the quarantine system of the 19th century. It is very important to create a new pattern of international co-operation. The International Sanitary Conferences in the late 19th century offers an important lesson in creating a new framework for the international co-operation of quarantine activities against the present viruses.

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