Epidemiological characteristics of the Manchurian plague pandemic of 1910-1911

Abstract

Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of the Manchurian plague pandemic of 1910–1911 with descriptive epidemiological methods. Methods The epidemiological data were distracted from Report of Manchurian Plague, which is a summary of local official reports about plague in 1910–1911. The time distribution by day, and the space distribution by country was recorded, and also the source of infection. Results The pandemic of plague continued from October 25th, 1910 to April 18th, 1911. There were 46 747 dead cases on record in the three provinces of Manchuria. There were 24 867 dead cases and 7068 dead cases were reported, and the average mortality rates were 41.21 and 10.25 per ten thousands in Jilin and Liaoning province, respectively. In Heilongjiang province, 14 812 dead cases of plague were reported. The huge difference was found in different epidemic regions, the highest mortality rate was 4121 per ten thousands in Binjiang country of Jilin province. Patient zero of pneumonic plague had been infected in Russia and got sick and died in Manzhouli, a northern country in Heilongjiang province. Then the pneumonic plague was mainly spread through railway to other cities. Conclusion The epidemiological characteristics of the Manchurian plague pandemic of 1910–1911 were first described with modern epidemiological methods.