Wanli 1592

Chapter 1317 The Plague of Schistosoma (Part [-])
All Xiao Ruxun’s knowledge about schistosomiasis comes from books. In his memory, schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease. Many scholars speculate that this disease existed as early as the 56th and [-]th centuries BC.

However, the historical records at that time were relatively vague, people's understanding of parasitic diseases was not accurate, and all parasitic diseases were identified as one, so it was impossible to determine whether schistosomiasis also existed among them.

But what is certain is that at least in the Western Han Dynasty, schistosomiasis has been confirmed to exist, because schistosomiasis eggs were found in the body of Mrs. Xin Zhui, a female corpse of the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in Mawangdui. This is irrefutable evidence, so schistosomiasis ravaged China. The earth is at least two thousand and one hundred years old.

The rest of the parasitic diseases are not without, but such a large-scale spread of long-standing parasitic diseases like schistosomiasis is indeed very rare. Today, schistosomiasis has not been completely eliminated, and it is still threatening people. of good health.

But compared to the ancients, schistosomiasis is no longer a chronic or even terminal disease that is difficult to treat.

For a relatively long period of time, schistosomiasis belonged to the state of "separation of human and disease", that is, schistosomiasis widely existed in the area south of the Yangtze River, but before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the main activity area of ​​the Han people was in the area north of the Yangtze River, and the Jiangbei area did not belong to the ravages of schistosomiasis area.

So for a long time, although schistosomiasis existed, but due to the sparse population in the south of the Yangtze River, although the disease was present, it was not a scale or a disaster, and it was not taken seriously by the rulers in the north.

Therefore, there are very few records and treatment methods for schistosomiasis, and doctors do not even pay attention to them. The authors of some limited medical works on parasites all grew up in the south.

With the development of the times, Jiangnan was gradually developed, and a large number of northern population moved to Jiangnan, which not only brought great development to Jiangnan, but also brought perfect conditions for large-scale outbreaks of schistosomiasis. Since the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, schistosomiasis outbreaks occasionally occurred , while the concentrated outbreak period existed in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Although the Ming and Qing dynasties were in the cold period in history, due to the large population increase, the local development was too intense, and people's low awareness of environmental protection led to frequent floods, which made schistosomiasis a prerequisite for large-scale infection.

During this period, schistosomiasis was still rampant in the south, and all the doctors who studied this case were from Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, and Taihu Lake Basin, which shows that these areas have formed the hardest hit areas for schistosomiasis in the traditional sense.

The harm of schistosomiasis is naturally unnecessary. The infected person is thin and has a huge belly, and loses his labor force, but he will not die so quickly, which will cause an extremely heavy burden on the family and severely damage social productivity. The enemy in the economic landscape.

The three provinces of Southern Zhili, Zhejiang and Fujian are an important part of his economic territory, but in these three provinces, there are many locust plagues and schistosomiasis disasters, and they are even more severe, becoming his life and death enemies.

The only thing he feels lucky now is that without being aware of schistosomiasis, he thought of many plagues that broke out in the south of the Yangtze River in history, so it is strictly stipulated in the army that no soldier is allowed to drink raw water casually.

Even if the running water of the stream has to be confirmed by a special person before it is safe to drink, at the same time, the army is equipped with a large number of water purification equipment such as green grass, bamboo charcoal and alum, and a department is set up to be responsible for drinking water for soldiers. Do not drink water indiscriminately.

This practice has been practiced since the time when North Korea led troops, and it has become a practice in the Qin army until now. Soldiers will never drink raw water casually. No matter how thirsty or want to drink water, they will never see a stream or river. Just go drink water.

Although there was no industrial pollution in ancient times, natural pollution was not at all lighter than industrial pollution. Many important diseases were transmitted through water sources. Therefore, the ancients also had a considerable understanding of water purification through thousands of years of experience.

Xiao Ruxun just used the state's executive power to standardize and scale it, and at the same time began to think about more convenient and economical water purification methods and the concept of tap water, etc., but in this era, without a chemical and industrial foundation, these are too ambitious.

However, it is not absolutely safe.

Xiao Ruxun thought that schistosomes can even enter the human body through the skin. As long as a person comes into contact with water with schistosomes, it only takes a few seconds for schistosomes to enter the human body and form an infection.

The only intermediate host of schistosomes is snails, and snails like to live in lakes and shallows with aquatic plants or even rice fields, which makes him very nervous.

He immediately sent a large number of officials from the central government to the garrison area in the south of the Yangtze River, and conveyed the latest instructions to the generals in the army, telling them not to drink raw water, but to drink it after purification or even boiling, and not to play in the water casually. Do not approach the waters casually.

Under such circumstances, he must first keep the army, and if the army is safe and stable, his orders can be quickly implemented.

If the army gets sick and loses combat effectiveness, the situation will be very serious. Jiangxi, Sichuan and other places have just ended the war against Yang Yinglong, and they are still recovering from the war. Afterwards, the Southwest Corps stationed here still has the task of maintaining stability and implementing large-scale land reform. Absolutely The army cannot be infected.

But what is more depressing is that he can't remember what a snail looks like.

The appearance of snails was introduced in the books he had read, but he couldn't remember them.

The key is that most of the snails look similar, but only the oncomelania is the intermediate host of the schistosomiasis. He remembers that the oncomelania is small, less than one centimeter, and very hard. Other than that, he has no other impressions.

For this reason, he came up with a way, which is to ask the officials sent out to conduct a comprehensive inspection in the south of the Yangtze River, and record the places where there are similar schistosomiasis patients, and then go to the nearby water to salvage the snails and bring them back for the public. He identified it directly, and maybe he could find the snails.

Right now there is no other way but to do this.

In fact, at the beginning of the second year of Longwu, in order to better deal with various disasters, he set up a special natural disaster response strategy department at the central government. All officials under the General Administration of Locust Control are under the Natural Disaster Response Strategy Division.

At present, in addition to controlling locusts, a more difficult task-controlling schistosomiasis also falls on the natural disaster response department.

According to Xiao Ruxun's statistics, the three natural threats that Daqin is currently facing are small glaciers, locusts, and schistosomiasis. The small glaciers cannot be restored by manpower, and can only be adjusted accordingly, but locust plagues and schistosomiasis can be managed by manpower.

Previous dynasties did not do this, Xiao Ruxun could not ignore it.

(End of this chapter)