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3rd Pandemic: mainly in Asia, but all continents affected (1850s-1959)
The initial outbreak of the third pandemic was in China's Yunnan Province in the 1850's. The disease was stable within the province, but was spread due to a Moslem rebellion which resulted in population disruption. Refugees from the conflict moved south, into regions of China with larger populations. The plague went with them, producing an increasing number of casualties. In the city of Canton, beginning in March 1894, the disease killed 60,000 people in just a few weeks. Daily water traffic with the near by city of Hong Kong rapidly spread the plague. Within two months, after 100,000 deaths, the death rates dropped below epidemic rates, although the disease continued to be endemic in Hong Kong until 1929.
Casualty patterns indicate that waves of this pandemic may have been from two different sources. The first was primarily bubonic and was carried around the world through ocean-going trade, transporting infected persons, rats, and cargos harboring fleas. The second, more virulent strain was primarily pneumonic in character, with a strong person-to-person contagion. This strain was largely confined to Asia, particularly Manchuria and Mongolia. Researchers during the "Third Pandemic" identified plague vectors and the plague bacillus, leading in time to modern treatment methods.
With the bubonic plague spreading to all inhabited continents, it ultimately killed more than 12 million people in India and China alone. The network of global shipping ensured the widespread distribution of the disease over the next few decades. Recorded outbreaks include:
19th Century 20th Century
* Pakhoi, China 1882.
* Canton, China 1894.
* Hong Kong, China 1894.
* Formosa (Taiwan), China 1896.
* Bombay, India 1896-1898.
* Calcutta, India 1898.
* Madagascar, 1898.
* Egypt, 1899.
* Manchuria, China 1899.
* Paraguay, 1899.
* South Africa, 1899-1902.
* Hawaii, United States, 1899.
* San Francisco, United States, 1899.http://www.istrianet.org/istria/medicine...
The number of months is not given in the reference I found but the year was 1899 and because the vector and cause of the pandemic was known at this time, it was stopped within months of arrival.

1 comments:

mirror said...

Do you mean Bubonic Plague, or on some TV show?

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