Third plague pandemic

Third Pandemic is the designation of a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan province in China in 1855. This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately killed more than 12 million people in India and China alone. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic was considered active until 1959, when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year.

The name refers to this pandemic being the third major bubonic plague outbreak known to western sources. The first was the Plague of Justinian, which ravaged the Byzantine Empire and surrounding areas from 541 to 542. The second was the Black Death, which killed at least one third of Europe's population in a series of expanding waves of infection from 1346 to 1353.

Casualty patterns indicate that waves of this late-19th-century/early-20th-century pandemic may have been from two different sources. The first was primarily bubonic and was carried around the world through ocean-going trade, through transporting infected persons, rats, and cargoes harboring fleas. The second, more virulent strain, was primarily pneumonic in character with a strong person-to-person contagion. This strain was largely confined to Asia, in particular Manchuria and Mongolia.

The bubonic plague was endemic in populations of infected ground rodents in central Asia, and was a known cause of death among migrant and established human populations in that region for centuries; however, an influx of new people due to political conflicts and global trade led to the distribution of this disease throughout the world.

The initial outbreak occurred in Yunnan Province in south-western China in the 1850s. The disease was stable within the province, but was spread due to the Panthay Rebellion. The rebellion displaced local tribes, and also changed animal harvesting practices, leading to greater contact with infected animals. In addition, the rebellion meant that refugees from the conflict moved south, into regions of China with larger populations. The plague went with them, producing an increasing number of casualties. In the city of Canton, beginning in March 1894, the disease killed 60,000 people in a few weeks. Daily water-traffic with the nearby city of Hong Kong rapidly spread the plague. Within two months, after 100,000 deaths, the death rates dropped below epidemic rates, although the disease continued to be endemic in Hong Kong until 1929.

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