The first case was discovered by Scottish doctor James Alfred Lowson, acting superintendent of the
Government Civil Hospital, on May 8, 1894. The patient, named "A. Hung", was a ward boy, presumably working in the Government Civil Hospital. "A. Hung" died 5 days later. On May 10, 1894, the city was declared an infected port. On the same day, a Sanitary Board meeting was convened. The Sanitary Board was headed by
James Stewart Lockhart. At the meeting, Lowson argued for a strong quarantine policy, including the removal of Chinese from their houses. Some on the Board, including Dr.
Kai Ho, expressed concerns that the policy would offend the Chinese, and that the Chinese would refuse to comply to such government policies. The Sanitary Board opted to follow the advice of Lowson. On May 12, a Permanent Committee was formed to enforce quarantine measures. The committee was chaired by
J. J. Francis and included
Captains-superintendent Francis Henry May and Ayres. Lowson was given
de facto charge to contain and combat the plague.
The Whitewash Brigade On May 11, legislation was passed to make the reporting of cases compulsory and to allow authorities to enter houses to search for and remove infected persons for isolation. House-to-house inspection and disinfection were performed by the local garrison, the
Shropshire Light Infantry. The inspection and disinfection team was known as the "Whitewash Brigade", consisting of around 300 men and 8 officers. During an inspection, the occupants were given new clothes and sent to temporary lodgings on Chinese boats anchored off
Stonecutters Island or to government-hired buildings, including the
Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals. Their own clothes and fabrics in the house would be sent to a steam disinfecting station. The house was then sprayed with a solution of
perchloride of mercury or fumigated by
chlorine gas, the floor and furniture cleaned with
Jeyes Fluid and the walls
lime-washed ("whitewashing"). Household items suspected of being contaminated were burnt. Members of the Shropshire regiment became the first Europeans to be affected by the plague. At least one officer died to the disease.
Clashes with Chinese community At the time, Chinese residents of Hong Kong had a deep mistrust of
Western medical science, making the containment of the plague difficult. The distrust was exacerbated by ineffective treatment and highly intrusive policies by the colonial government. The Chinese would hide their sick from the authorities, and infected bodies would be thrown out at night to avoid detection. The western practice of using ice to cool down a fever was rejected by the Chinese, who viewed extreme cold as damaging to the body. The quick and hasty burials performed by the government, with the bodies covered in
quicklime, were also offensive to the Chinese. In 1903, the government had to reimburse the cost of disinfected clothing to the Chinese, as they had disliked the smell of disinfectant. The house-to-house inspection was especially resisted by the Chinese community. Chinese ladies were reluctant to let strangers, let alone foreigners, enter their
boudoirs. Rumors of British soldiers seeking to rape Chinese women arose. In one instance, on May 19, the Whitewash Brigade was pelted with stones, bricks and rubbish. In another instance, around 100 women, relatives of the deceased, organized a meeting at
Tung Wah Hospital, where they wailed and cried against the community leaders and hospital administration. The government responded to the meeting by forbidding searchers to enter Chinese households without permission, and by allowing patients to choose Chinese treatment in Chinese hospitals. Members of the Chinese community continued to petition
Governor William Robinson to halt the cleansing operations completely, and to allow patients to travel to China to seek treatment. Robinson initially refused, but when
compradors of major
hongs threatened to have their staff leave their posts, Robinson allowed patients to travel to Guangzhou for treatment, and corpses to be transported there for burials. However, the whitewashing operations was to be continued. As a result, an anti-government poster campaign was launched in Canton and Hong Kong. This inflamed more rumours against the English doctors, who were said to be making medicine with the bodies of plague victims. Robinson responded by moving the gunboat
HMS Tweed to Taipingshan and offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the poster distributors.
Viceroy Li Hanzhang of Canton was also requested to make a statement to deny the rumours. However, these efforts proved ineffective in building trust between the Western and Chinese communities. Whitewashing could only continue after a great deal of persuasion and explanation by both the government and some esteemed members of the Chinese community. After a time, the operations were suspended.
Temporary hospitals Established hospitals around the major areas of outbreak would only accept suspected patients for observation. Once the symptoms of plague appeared, they would be moved to specialized plague hospitals. The plague hospitals included a temporary hospital at the
Kennedy Town Police Station (known as the "Kennedy Town Hospital", opened on May 14) and the hospital ship
Hygeia (), ran by staff of the Nethersole Hospital. When patients were removed according to the policy from Tung Wah Hospital to
Hygeia, violent protests erupted in the city. Tung Wah Hospital had been a reputable hospital in the Chinese community. It practiced
Chinese medicine and was seen as a symbol of Chinese independence in a colonial city. Thus, the hospital came under fire from the Chinese community when they allowed patients to be transferred away to plague hospitals. At one point, doctors had to carry pistols to protect themselves. The riots led to the establishment of a temporary plague hospital at Kennedy Town glass works, known as the "Glassworks Hospital" on May 21. This hospital would be manned by staff from the Tung Wah Hospital. The patients were offered a choice between the Glassworks Hospital and plague hospitals with European staff. The Chinese-majority patients overwhelmingly chose the Glassworks Hospital. The hospital quickly became overcrowded and sanitary conditions worsened. On June 8, another temporary hospital at an unfinished pig depot was also set up, known as the "Slaughterhouse Hospital", again manned by staff from Tung Wah Hospital, in hopes of relieving the situation at the Glassworks Hospital. When the Chinese medicine offered by the Glassworks Hospital proved to be ineffective, and conditions of the hospital continued to worsen, it was closed down on June 16, and its patients were transferred to either
Guangzhou or to the Slaughterhouse Hospital. Subsequently, a "New Glassworks Hospital" was set up at the site, this time staffed by European doctors from the Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hospitals. In July, a hospital was established in
Lai Chi Kok near a graveyard, but it did not receive any patients. This was attributed to the Chinese refusing to be admitted into the hospital as they felt "they were sure to die."
Hygeia was later used only to house European, Eurasian and Japanese patients.
Economic downturn The plague saw a mass exodus of panic-stricken Chinese workers back to China, causing a significant economic downturn in the city. The
North-China Herald noted that "it is not the plague they are flying from, as they are going to the nest at Canton from which [the plague] came to Hong Kong. They seem rather to be flying from the sanitary measures taken in Hong Kong." Some were seeking a proper burial on Chinese grounds. At the height of the plague, around 1,000 persons were leaving Hong Kong daily. In May and June, it was estimated that 80,000 to 90,000 Chinese, out of a population of 200,000, left Hong Kong Island. Owners of hongs left for China, leaving the businesses to caretakers, slowing down the business operations. The colony suffered a severe labour shortage. Inflation followed, with prices of food items rising by 30 to 50 percent. As visitors to Hong Kong had to be quarantined, trade between Hong Kong and China was decimated. In June, Robinson reported to
Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Ripon that "without exaggeration I may assert that so far as trade and commerce are concerned the plague has assumed the importance of an unexampled calamity."
Land resumption commemorating the pandemic On May 31, a bylaw drawn up by the Sanitary Board allowed for the eviction and closure of houses deemed unfit for habitation. Houses on the streets of Kau Yu Fong (), Sin Hing Lee (), Nga Choi Hong () and Mei Lun Lee () were demolished, and a brick wall was erected surrounding those areas. In September 1894, the Taipingshan Resumption Ordinance was passed, allowing the
resumption of an area of about 10 acres in the Taipingshan district. The area accounted for 50 percent of the cases, and 385 houses in the area were destroyed. Around 7,000 inhabitants were displaced. The area was walled up, and guards were stationed to prevent residents from re-entry. This drastic measure called for, as described by Robinson, "the destruction and rebuilding of one tenth part of Hong Kong." Reconstruction began in the end of 1895 and lasted until 1898. Drainage systems were improved, and balconies were installed for better ventilation. An area was marked out for the construction of a Bacteriological Institute. A public park was also constructed. It was named
Blake Garden after then-Governor
Henry Arthur Blake. Today, a plaque stands at the park, commemorating the deadly epidemic.
End of the 1894 plague At the peak of the 1894 plague, admissions to hospital averaged at 80 a day, and deaths peaked at over 100 per day. Taipingshan was not the only area affected by the plague. Areas such as Bowrington (now between today's
Wan Chai and
Causeway Bay),
Sai Ying Pun,
Shek Tong Tsui and Kennedy Town saw more deaths than Taipingshan. Internationally, steamships from Hong Kong carried the bacillus to every major seaport in the world, including India. The plague subsided with the arrival of cold weather in the winter of 1894.
Endemic In 1895, only 44 cases were reported, but the plague returned strongly in 1896, affecting mostly Chinese in the Taipingshan district. Once again, it subsided in winter, and it returned almost annually thereafter. The plague lasted until 1929, when the last cases were recorded.
Statistics In total, between 1894 and 1929, there were over 24,000 cases with a
mortality rate of over 90%. Between 1894 and 1923, there were 21,867 cases and 20,489 deaths, with a fatality rate of 93.7%. In 1894, there was no law to enforce the notification of deaths. Women suffered a higher mortality rate than men, most likely due to their role as the caretakers of the sick. : Including Europeans, Indians, Japanese, Filipinos, Eurasians, Malays and West Indians ==Investigation on the cause of the disease==