History of epidemics in Siberia began with the construction of the TRANS-Siberian railway, before likely to spread rapidly in vast areas with harsh climate, the microbes are simply not there. This beach transit cities where infected people were brought by the carloads, was the cholera. In the years 1892-1896 it only in Omsk had more than five thousand people, almost half of them died. The city even had to open Olga’s shelter where you adopted orphans of deceased residents and migrants.
In the years 1907-1910 cholera again occupied Siberia.
– contributed to This, particularly agrarian reform of Peter Stolypin. In search of a better life in Siberia rushed thousands of peasant families. Some carts were driving along the highway, leaving behind rows of graves. Others – in crowded trains, where the infection was transmitted with lightning speed, and the dead were carried almost at every station, says the local historian, member of the Board of the Omsk branch of the all-Russia society of protection of monuments of history Mr Panasenkov. – In the city quickly began to open hospitals, to recruit a group of sisters of mercy, promising volunteers triple pay (less money to risk the health and life nobody wanted).
Many people donated to fight the epidemic on their savings. As known in the Miller Ivan Sinichkin under galernuju gave the hospital his house.
the Rapid spread of the disease was accompanied by terrible unsanitary conditions. In the city there was no Sewerage, wells were side by side with trash. The water that was taken from the local stagnant water bodies, were absolutely unfit for drinking.
a Policeman was handing out sanitation to hundreds of vials with a solution of corrosive sublimate (chloride of mercury), however, this measure did not help. The police had no experience with chemical preparations, and would soon be poisoned with corrosive sublimate than to contain the spread of the disease. August 4, 1910, the newspaper “the Omsk Telegraph” noted the beginning of the epidemic – cholera contracted 791 people.
the First world war dramatically increased the danger of the spread of infectious diseases. With the assistance of the red cross in Omsk opened a hospital with a hundred beds, but it was a drop in the bucket.
army of millions has become a major source of disease transmission. Returning from the front, the soldiers brought home a whole bunch of infections. Another hotbed of the epidemics have become a pow camp – 375 thousand of them died of typhus and smallpox in Siberia.
Aggravated the situation a Civil war. In 1918 in Omsk again came the cholera, in 1919 typhus.
– the Rapid spread of infection contributed to unprecedented migration. During the period of government of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, the city was crowded with refugees, the disabled, soldiers, speculators of all stripes. The population grew VTROE. The disease did not spare anyone. And even the military regime could not resist. The courtyards of hospitals, clinics, railway siding was literally littered with dead bodies to bury them just do not have time, – stressed Vladimir Panasenko. – Historians believe that the epidemic in Omsk was one of the reasons for the defeat of the Supreme ruler.
weakened by the diseases the white army suffered defeat after defeat. 12 Nov 1919 Admiral Kolchak left Omsk, but in the city there are 60 thousand sick and wounded soldiers.
“On the crossroads, Kulomzin, which housed unheated white hospital, the Bolsheviks found 1 500 people, abandoned to their fate. 700 of them were frozen,” wrote the “Izvestiya of the Omsk revolutionary Committee” in November 1919.
In December in Omsk died every day from infections for up to 200 people. However, were overcrowded not only in Omsk hospital.
“the road to the Krasnoyarsk was a solid Kingdom typhus. And the mortality from it exceeded thirty percent,” recalled in his memoirs the commander of the 5th red army, Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
to confront the epidemic, in December, 1919, Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk) was established the Extraordinary Commission to combat typhus. As a result, only in Omsk was opened medical facilities at 22 thousand beds. As reported by local Newspapers, emergency command “forced them to labor service the idle parasites and different challenge” – attracted them to the distribution of free food, digging mass graves. Blankets and linen for the sick requisitioned from the citizens.
But to defeat the epidemic proved more difficult than to seize power. First, it was necessary to restore basic order – mountains of sewage, manure, dead horses stood in the center of Omsk and even in the headquarters of the worker-peasant militia. And accustomed to unsanitary conditions are not only ignored calls to keep streets clean, but poured the slops directly under the feet of passers-by.
By the end of 1920, the disease seemingly disappeared, but in 1921-1922 the Omsk again overwhelmed typhoid, cholera and dysentery, which killed thousands of people. In the result the Omsk province was recognized as one of the most dysfunctional sanitary-epidemiological regions of Siberia.
In Russia, the first quarantine instruction appeared in the time of Peter in 1712, and in 1800 the Charter was published, introducing a whole system of restrictive measures and severe penalties. The intention is to break through the quarantine cordon, the hiding of the sick, the stealing infected things was punished by deprivation of all rights and status, exile to hard labor in Siberia and even the death penalty.
Fighters against the epidemic have used different protective equipment. So, in 1619 the French physician Charles de Lorm made “anti-plague” costume consisting of a long coat, narrow trousers, Botin��to, gloves and hats. On the face of the healer wore a leather mask with built-in round lenses for eyes. A long beak stuffed with herbs, tampons, impregnated with camphor or vinegar. The physician is constantly chewing garlic, and touched the sick only with the help of a cane. Only in the early 1920s, doctors began to use a bandage that covers the nose and mouth.
