When death came calling: how the plague swept through Hong Kong
It has been 120 years since the plague darkened our shores, bringing with it a brilliant young scientist who would make a groundbreaking discovery here. Sarah Lazarus looks at its history and the threat posed by a disease that refuses to die
This year marks the 120th anniversary of two events that took place in Hong Kong and had a profound impact on the whole world. One was a human tragedy on a massive scale. The other was a scientific breakthrough of far-reaching importance.
In May 1894, the plague came to Hong Kong. It cut a swathe through the colony, causing widespread suffering and sparking social unrest. From Hong Kong the plague spread far and wide, creating a global pandemic that claimed millions of lives.
In June 1894, young Franco-Swiss scientist Alexandre Yersin came to Hong Kong and made a brilliant discovery. Yersin identified the bacillus that causes plague, laying the groundwork for methods to prevent and cure the disease. The bacillus was later named in his honour: Yersinia pestis.
These two events are being commemorated at a temporary exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences, on Caine Lane, Mid-Levels, called "Plagues from the Plague to New Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Tribute to Alexandre Yersin & Other Lifesaving Heroes".
The twin anniversaries are a timely reminder that plague exists in today's world. The word "plague" might be redolent of biblical retribution and medieval misery, but the disease itself has not been consigned to history. In fact, since the early 1990s, plague has been making a comeback. Over the past 20 years, more than 50,000 human cases have been reported and the World Health Organisation has classified it as a re-emerging disease.
The world is full of infectious diseases, of varying degrees of nastiness, but plague is exceptional. Yersinia pestis is the most virulent pathogen ever known and it has killed more people than any other.
says Dr Elisabeth Carniel, head of the Yersinia Research Unit at the Institut Pasteur, the leading French research institute, and director of the WHO's Collaborating Centre of Reference and Research on Yersinia. "A number of teams have conducted genetic studies to pinpoint the origin of the plague bacillus and what we found is amazing. Most bacteria are millions of years old and arose long before human beings. Yersinia pestis, however, is only 3,000 years old. It's the youngest pathogen we know - in terms of evolution it's like a newborn baby."