All of Xiao Ruxun's understanding of schistosomiasis came from books. In his memory, schistosomiasis was a parasitic disease. Many scholars speculated that this disease had existed as early as the 15th or 16th century BC.
However, the historical records at that time were relatively vague, and people did not have a clear understanding of parasitic diseases. All parasitic diseases were identified as one, so it was impossible to determine whether schistosomiasis existed among them.
However, it was certain that at least in the Western Han dynasty, schistosomiasis existed because schistosomiasis eggs were found in the female corpse of the Western Han dynasty, Mrs. Xin Zhui, which was unearthed in Mawangdui. This was irrefutable evidence. Therefore, schistosomiasis had ravaged the land of China for at least 2,100 years.
Other parasitic diseases did exist, but parasitic diseases like schistosomiasis that spread on a large scale and existed for a long time were indeed very rare. Until today, schistosomiasis had not been completely eliminated, and it still threatened people's health.
However, compared to the ancients, schistosomiasis was no longer a difficult disease to treat or even a terminal disease.
For a relatively long period of time, schistosomiasis belonged to the state of separation between people and diseases, that is, schistosomiasis widely existed in the southern area of the Yangtze River. However, before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the main activity area of the Han people was in the northern area of the Yangtze River, and the Jiangbei area did not belong to the area where schistosomiasis ravaged.
Therefore, for a long time, although schistosomiasis existed, because the population in the southern area of the Yangtze River was sparse, the disease did not spread on a large scale and did not become a disaster. Therefore, the rulers in the north did not pay attention to it.
Therefore, there were very few records and treatment methods on schistosomiasis, and it was not even valued by doctors. The limited medical works on parasites were written by authors who grew up in the south.
With the development of the times, Jiangnan was gradually developed, and a large number of people in the north moved to Jiangnan, bringing great development to Jiangnan, but it also brought perfect conditions for the large-scale outbreak of schistosomiasis. Since the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasty, schistosomiasis occasionally broke out, and the concentrated outbreak period existed in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Although the Ming and Qing dynasties were in the cold period of history, due to the large increase in population, excessive local development, and lack of awareness of environmental protection, which led to frequent floods, and the prerequisite conditions for large-scale transmission of schistosomiasis.
During this period, schistosomiasis was still raging in the south. All the doctors who studied this case were from the Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, and Taihu Lake basins, indicating that these areas had formed a traditional schistosomiasis disaster area.
Naturally, the harm caused by the schistosomiasis was not much. The infected person was thin and weak, had a huge belly, and lost the ability to work, but they would not die so quickly. This caused the family burden to be extremely heavy, and the productivity of society was seriously damaged. It was a great enemy of the dynasty's economic construction, and also a great enemy of Xiao Ruxun's economic territory.
Southern Zhili, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces were important parts of his economic map, and in these three provinces, there were many locust plagues and schistosomiasis plagues, some of which were even more severe. They were his mortal enemies.
The only thing he felt fortunate about was that he was not aware of the existence of schistosomiasis. He thought of the many epidemics that broke out in Jiangnan in history, so in the army, there was a strict rule that no soldier was allowed to casually drink unboiled water.
Even if it was flowing water from a stream, it had to be confirmed by a specialist before it could be drunk. At the same time, the army was equipped with a large number of water purification tools such as green thatch, bamboo charcoal, alum, and other water purification tools, and set up a department specifically responsible for drinking water for the soldiers. In any case, there were thousands of words to say — drinking water was not allowed.
This practice had been carried out since the time of the North Korean army. Until now, it had become a routine in the Qin Army. Soldiers would never casually drink unboiled water, even if they were thirsty and wanted to drink water, they would not drink water whenever they saw a stream or river.
Although there was no industrial pollution in ancient times, natural pollution was no less than industrial pollution. Many important diseases were spread through water sources, so the ancient people had a considerable understanding of the matter of clean water through thousands of years of experience.
Xiao Ruxun just used the implementation of the state to standardize the scale, and at the same time began to think of more convenient and economic methods of clean water, the concept of tap water, and so on. But in this era, there was no chemical foundation and industrial foundation, so these were too ambitious.
Even so, it was not absolutely safe.
Xiao Ruxun thought that the blood fluke could even enter the human body through the skin. As long as a person came into contact with the blood fluke in the water, it would only take a few seconds for the blood fluke to enter the human body and become infected.
The only intermediate host of the blood fluke was the oncomelania, and the oncomelania liked to live in shallow lakes and even paddy fields with aquatic plants. This made him very nervous.
He immediately sent a large number of officials from the central government to the Jiangnan garrison area to convey the latest instructions to the generals in the army. He warned them not to drink unboiled water, and they must purify or even boil it before drinking it. They should not casually go into the water to play in it, and they should not casually go into the water if they found the presence of oncomelania.
In this situation, he must first protect the army. The safety and stability of the army could be quickly implemented.
If the army was infected and lost their combat power, the situation would be very serious. Jiangxi and Sichuan had just ended the war against Yang Yinglong, and they were still recovering from the war. After that, the Southwest Corps stationed here had the task of maintaining stability and carrying out large-scale land reform, so the army must not be infected.
But what was more depressing was that he could not remember what the oncomelania looked like.
He had read a book that described the appearance of the oncomelania, but he could not remember it.
The key was that most of the snails looked similar, but only the oncomelania was the intermediate host of the blood fluke. He only remembered that the oncomelania was small, less than a centimeter, and very hard. Other than that, he had no other impression.
For this reason, he thought of a way, which was to send the officials to Jiangnan to conduct a comprehensive inspection. If they found any places that were similar to those with the disease, they would record it, and then go to the nearby water bodies to fish for snails and bring them back for him to identify. Maybe they could find the oncomelania.
There was no other way, so this was the only way.
In fact, at the beginning of the second year of Long Wu, in order to better deal with all kinds of disasters, he specially set up the Natural Disaster Response Department in the central government. The General Office of Locust Control was only a temporary government office established by Xu Guangqi to match the rank of Xu Guangqi. All the officials under the jurisdiction of the General Office of Locust Control were under the Natural Disaster Response Department.
And now, other than controlling the locusts, an even more difficult task – the control of the disease also fell on the Natural Disaster Response Department.
According to Xiao Ruxun's calculations, the three natural threats that the Daqin was facing were the small ice river, the locusts, and the blood fluke. The small ice river could not be saved by manpower, and could only be dealt with according to the situation. But the locust plague and the disease could be dealt with by manpower.
In the past, no previous dynasties had done this, so Xiao Ruxun could not ignore it.
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