The Prevalence Of Epidemic Disasters And The Change Of Public Health Consciousness In Yunan-Guizhou-Sichuan Regions During The Republican Period

Although the Republic of China is only 38 years old.it is an important transitional period in the history of China's development.During the period of the Republic of China,there was no epidemic in Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan regions.Frequent epidemics shocked the depressed society at that time.Society was slowly changing under the rage of infectious diseases.This paper focuses on the epidemic situation of Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan regions during the Republic of China,analyzes the disaster factors based on the particularity of the region,and discusses the changes of public health consciousness under the influence of epidemic.In terms of the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of epidemic disasters,during the period of the Republic of China,epidemics occurred almost every year,and the epidemic frequency of sichuan province reached 100%.The epidemic index remained high for ten years,the epidemic scope increased in fluctuation and reached the maximum extent in 1942,the number of epidemic counties showed a significant "double peak" state,and the epidemic degree in the later period of the Republic of China was significantly heavier than that in the earlier period.In terms of spatial distribution,the counties with frequent epidemic disasters were semi-circular along the edge of the Sichuan Basin.Although the center of epidemic disaster has migrated to some extent in the early,middle and late period of the Republic of China,they were all located in Sichuan province.Cholera,smallpox,typhoid fever,malaria and plague are the major infectious diseases with high incidence in this region.Except for cholera in Guizhou province and plague in Yunnan province,the rest are distributed in Sichuan province,which is the epidemic hot spot in this region.Epidemic outbreak is the result of natural and social factors.In terms of natural factors,the altitude of Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan area is relatively high,there was a weak correlation between epidemic prevalence and altitude at the significance level of 0.01(r=-0.152).On the whole,the higher the altitude was,the lower the epidemic frequency was.The mean annual temperature was weakly positively correlated with the number of epidemic years(r=0.118).The higher the temperature was,the more likely the epidemic was.Although the annual average precipitation did not pass the correlation test,it was found in the coupling diagram that low-lying areas with annual precipitation between 800-1200mm were the concentration areas of counties with frequent epidemic disasters.As the main source of drinking water at that time,the analysis of buffer zone shows that the closer to the river,the higher the frequency of epidemic disaster.Subtropical monsoon climate,frequent water and drought disasters,as well as earthquakes have a certain induction mechanism for epidemic diseases,natural foci also affect the distribution of epidemic diseases,which is the main reason for the high incidence of plague in southwesterm Yunnan.In terms of social factors,because of the more mountainous,densely populated,convenient transportation of Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan regions,the exchanges of relatively flat area was a high incidence of disease focus area.In addition to the impact of the war affect local disease outbreaks,bacteria also can follow army and refugee migration and expand the scope.The unique customs of ethnic minority areas,to some extent,have intensified the epidemic.After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War,the public health in Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan area developed rapidly because the national government moved the capital into the rear area.Within a short time,public health administration,services and epidemic prevention systems were established one after another.The rapid "abnormal" development makes the health institutions almost concentrate in the economically developed cities.With the development of public health.public health awareness has gradually opened up in ideology.With the support of the central government,the government has promulgated a series of policies and regulations.Under the influence of the concepts of scientific epidemic prevention,the general public has formed the custom of eliminating disasters and epidemic diseases.Despite this period of rapid development,the public health level was still far behind of coastal cities.Moreover,after the victory of the war of resistance against Japanese aggression,the supporting forces from all aspects moved back,and the health industry fell into a state of stagnation.