Isolation centres existed in 19th century Bengal, say historians

A research work by two eminent historians on epidemics that struck undivided Bengal in the 19th and early 20th century shows that terms such as 'quarantine centre' and 'isolation' which have now become a part of everyday vocabulary because of the COVID-19 pandemic, were not unheard of in those days.

The research by Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das and professor of Burdwan University, Achintya Kumar Dutta, chronicles the outbreak of cholera, smallpox and malaria during the British era and how the colonial rulers responded to the situation.

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Even in the late 19th century, it was advised that patients afflicted with highly contagious diseases were kept in isolation and suspects in quarantine centres, Das told PTI.

Between the period of 1817 and 1865, 1.5 crore people were affected in cholera in the country and thousands died, Das said.

The researchers got details of the outbreak from documents kept in government archives and publications available in the country and the UK.

Similarly, the research referred to the outbreak of malaria in 1860 and also in the early 20th century, besides that of small pox which assumed an alarming proportion in the period between 1919 and 1926.

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Around 37,000 people were down with small pox in 1919 alone and there were high fatalities, Das said.

"To save people from the spread of communicable diseases, the then British government drafted the Epidemic Diseases Act in 1897 and many features of that have been incorporated in the Disaster Management Act invoked by the government to cope with COVID-19," he said.

The government has invoked the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to deal with the present coronavirus situation.

The eminent historian said, "Like in the present times, the term asymptomatic patients were used then as well for virus-borne diseases like malaria, and the need to track those patients was talked about to contain the spread of the epidemic.

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Going back to this period in late 19th-early 20th century, Das said when vaccines were introduced, there was resistance among a large number of people who were apprehensive about syringes injecting fluids inside the body.

He said the response of the then British rulers in containing the epidemics and cure the people was not satisfactory and this fact has been stressed in the research.

The work will come out in a book soon, Das said.