During the rapid spread of the ongoing health crisis the world remembered many pandemics that had caused havoc before. Experts have also given suggestions for chronic epidemics as to what to do and how to avoid this crisis. Meanwhile, super cyclone Amphan caused massive destruction in Bengal & Odisha.
100 years ago, during the outbreak of the plague epidemic a 'cyclone' had arrived. However, then that cyclone helped to end the global epidemic like plague. Let us know that the plague spread through ships in 1894 and reached Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1896. Then it caused so much destruction in the city that it was also called Bombay Plague.
50% of migrant workers left Bombay during the plague
At the time of the plague, 70 per cent of Bombay's total population was migrant workers. 50 percent of these people left Bombay and returned to their respective states within 6 months of the plague. Let me tell you that the epidemic law was also implemented in 1897 due to Bombay Plague. It was also called the third plague global epidemic. It gave people memories of the Black Death epidemic that spread across the world in the 14th century.
The ships were considered responsible for transporting the plague to every corner of the world. Plague began to spread in Hong Kong in 1894. After this, Alexandre Yersin of Pasteur Institute of France went to Hong Kong to investigate the cause of the outbreak of the plague. He had isolated the bacteria that spread the plague and found out its onset from rats. After this in 1898 his colleague came to India and found out that the plague has spread from mice to humans.
Plague epidemic reached from one country to another through ships
For centuries people kept thinking that the plague was spreading only because of mice. At the same time, the ships were considered responsible for transporting the plague to every corner of the world. Actually, there was enough space and food items available for the mice in the ships. They used to eat the food kept for the passengers and spread it to the passengers. With this, these passengers reached the plague to different countries.
At that time most of the trade between countries was done through ships. Initially, the vessels were released from the smoke by burning sulfur dioxide. However, this was a very slow process. In the beginning, the smoke from burning sulfur dioxide began to cause the vessels to be plugged. However, it was a very slow process.
In order to deal with this problem, the scientists initially burnt sulfur dioxide and smoked it in the ships (fumigation) so that the plague could be destroyed. However, it was a very slow process. Also, this process had to be repeated in the ship after every voyage. Just over 100 years ago, the German company Degesch revolutionized the work of eliminating plugs in ships by making Zyklon B gas in 1920.
In Germany, the term Zyklon was used for cyclone because the gas was composed of a compound of cyanide and chlorine. Due to being very effective, Zyklon B was engulfed like a storm all over the world. After the creation of this gas, it was necessary to disperse the gas only twice a year. Zyklon had helped a lot in preventing the spread of plague worldwide.
