The experience of fighting epidemics in the early days of the founding of New China: "those with epidemics cure epidemics, those without epidemics prevent epidemics"

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, various construction undertakings have been abandoned. At the same time, some epidemic disasters have disturbed the motherland from time to time, and in some places they are even very serious. In this regard, Mao Zedong demanded that all parts of the country must pay general attention to the epidemic situation, and treat and actively deal with the problem of epidemic disasters in accordance with the principle of "those with epidemic treatment and those without epidemic prevention.

Adhere to the Party's centralized and unified leadership of epidemic prevention and treatment.Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by humans and animals. It is widely prevalent in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in my country and is very harmful. At the turn of spring and summer in 1950, there was a sudden outbreak of acute schistosomiasis infection in Gaoyou County, Jiangsu Province, with thousands of deaths. After the epidemic was reported to the central government, Mao Zedong was extremely shocked. Therefore, he instructed the relevant departments to arrange personnel to go to the epidemic areas to conduct investigations and studies, and proposed to invite Jiangsu, Fujian, Jiangxi and other provinces and regions with schistosomiasis to send representatives to Shanghai to participate in the second special meeting on schistosomiasis prevention and control to discuss countermeasures. Out of overall consideration for the need for overall planning and coordination, the Central Schistosomiasis Prevention and Control Leading Group was established in November 1955 to uniformly lead the work of 12 provinces and municipalities where schistosomiasis is endemic in the south.

On December 21, 1955, Mao Zedong put forward the goal of basically eliminating schistosomiasis within 7 years in the "Consultation on the Seventeen Articles of Agriculture. In order to implement this task, the State Council issued the "Instructions on the Elimination of Schistosomiasis", and the Ministry of Health established the Schistosomiasis Prevention and Control Bureau. In particular, on April 23, 1957, the Central Committee clearly put forward the requirements for strengthening the party's leadership over the work of schistosomiasis prevention and control organizations, that is, "Party organizations at and above the township level in schistosomiasis endemic areas, if they have not yet established a leading group for schistosomiasis prevention and control, should be established quickly, and their leaders should be held by a secretary of the party organization". In this way, under the centralized and unified leadership of the party, the high incidence of schistosomiasis in my country was finally effectively curbed in 1958, and schistosomiasis in places such as Yujiang County in Jiangxi Province was cured. For this reason, Mao Zedong wrote two poems "Send the Plague God" with joy and gratification to celebrate and commemorate.

Establish an epidemic reporting system.Once an epidemic occurs in an area, early reporting is the key to epidemic prevention and control, and whether this can be achieved depends entirely on whether a complete and effective reporting system has been established.

Mao Zedong has always attached great importance to the establishment and implementation of the reporting system. During the War of Liberation, he once demanded that all central bureaus and sub-bureaus must be done by the secretary himself, without the secretary, on the dynamics of various activities such as military, political, land reform, party consolidation, economy, propaganda, and culture. Make a comprehensive report to the Central Committee and the Chairman of the Central Committee every two months, and form a system. After the founding of New China, he specifically asked the relevant provincial and municipal party committees to carefully inspect and discuss the epidemic situation that has occurred or may occur in the region. In addition to reporting the discussion and plan to the central government, he also "should report the prevention and control work to the central government every six months. A special report". Obviously, the purpose of his request is to understand and grasp the actual situation in various places and aspects in this way, so as to provide reference for correct decision-making. Based on this, many provinces have issued special documents for epidemic reporting, such as the East China District formulated the "Interim Regulations on the Reporting of Infectious Diseases in East China", Shandong Province issued the "Notice on the Strict Implementation of Epidemic Reports in All Localities", and Tianjin City promulgated the "Interim Measures for the Reporting of Epidemic Encephalitis B Epidemic", etc. In the interim measures for the Prevention and treatment of Infectious Diseases in Beijing, Beijing has made very detailed and highly operational provisions on how to do a good job in reporting the epidemic situation in terms of who is the reporter, how to report, and the time limit for reporting.

It is on the basis of actively exploring the epidemic reporting system throughout the country that in June 1955, with the approval of the State Council, the Ministry of Health issued the "measures for the Management of Infectious Diseases", in which the provisions on the time limit for epidemic reporting have legal significance. It should be said that the formal promulgation and implementation of the Measures not only provides a better idea for New China to finally establish an epidemic reporting system, but also provides a legal basis for fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of the people of all units and classes to follow the epidemic prevention and treatment reporting system.

Decisively take quarantine and blockade.On July 13, 1949, the first case of plague was found in qianyingtu hot village, Chahar District. Because the local government did not take timely measures such as quarantine and blockade, the epidemic situation continued to spread in the process of panic and escape of some people, which finally led to the introduction of epidemic disease in Zhangjiakou, posing a serious threat to Beijing.

In view of this, Beijing learned the lesson of the slow decision-making of the Chabei District, and quickly took vigorous action. On October 29, Beijing announced the establishment of an epidemic prevention committee. On November 2, the Interim Measures for the Prevention of Plague in Beijing were promulgated. It was then decided to implement strict plague quarantine measures. If it is stipulated that all trains coming from the epidemic area to Beijing are not allowed to enter the Beijing border, passengers of all trains must be quarantined in Beijing station, foreign passengers must be quarantined before entering Beijing city. After inspection, all quarantine stations will immediately enforce quarantine treatment for plague patients, suspected patients and possible victims, partition and blockade the patient's residence area when necessary, and enforce quarantine for patients' families and neighboring residents. The next day, the Beijing Municipal Epidemic Prevention Committee decided to establish a blockade line from Dongba Town in the western suburbs to Liuliqu in the northern suburbs and establish quarantine stations and quarantine stations in the eastern and southern suburbs, Tongxian, Changxindian, Fengtai and other districts. In addition to the blocking tasks of the local people and public security personnel, five platoons of troops were deployed by the army to take charge of the blocking of the suburban lines. Due to the strict prevention of Beijing, as of December 4, no plague patient has been found in the city. In this way, the blockade will be lifted from now on and the quarantine work will be completed. It is precisely because of the adoption of such a strict quarantine and blockade policy that the effectiveness of "defending the capital from the invasion of the plague" has been ensured.

Strong promotion of vaccination and injection.The smallpox is a common infectious disease in our country. In order to prevent and control this disease, the Ministry of Health of the Central People's Government and the Ministry of Health of the Military Commission jointly issued the ''Instructions to the People's Governments and Troops at All Levels on Carrying out Military and Civilian Spring Epidemic Prevention Work'' in the first half of 1950. A new path to solve it.

In accordance with this instruction, in the second half of 1950, the Ministry of Health issued the "Interim Measures for Vaccination", stipulating that residents in the People's Republic of China must be vaccinated regardless of nationality. It is stipulated that health administrative organs at all levels may enforce those who refuse to get pox without justifiable reasons and are ineffective after persuasion and education. For those who have been vaccinated, a vaccination certificate should be issued; for all expenses incurred in vaccination, the people's government implements a free policy, which eliminates the worries of many ordinary people who refuse to plant because they are worried about paying. At the same time, in order to further promote the rapid development of vaccination work, the Government Council pointed out in the "Instructions on Launching the Autumn Vaccination Campaign" that governments at all levels and health and epidemic prevention personnel must pay attention to publicity and education work, so that the masses can break those who do not plant in spring, peach blossoms and wheat ears, there are even some unscientific stereotypes that have to choose a day to reckon. In this way, through the hard work of governments at all levels and health and epidemic prevention personnel, by the first half of 1952, more than 0.5 billion vaccinia vaccinations had been completed nationwide. By 1961, New China was the first in the world to declare the eradication of smallpox, which had been prevalent for thousands of years. In addition, through the injection of dead bacteria vaccine, the injection of raw bacteria vaccine and the vaccination of BCG vaccine, the plague, smallpox, cholera, typhoid and other diseases that have been raging in China for many years have finally been brought under control, and some of them have even disappeared.

Source: Learning Times