In midsummer of 1955, Mao Zedong came to Hangzhou for inspection and specially arranged for staff around him to go to the suburbs and rural areas to conduct a detailed investigation on a disease. What disease made Mao Zedong pay so much attention?
Mao Zedong was concerned about schistosomiasis, commonly known as "big belly disease", which is a disease caused by schistosomiasis parasitizing on the human body. It has a high mortality rate and seriously endangeres the lives and safety of the people. China was once one of the most severe countries in the world with schistosomiasis.
In the early days of the founding of New China, the number of schistosomiasis was 11.6 million, and the number of people threatened by infection exceeded 100 million, covering 12 provinces and cities in the south. At this time, there were less than 40,000 Western doctors and about 300,000 Chinese doctors in the country, and there were fewer special medicines for treating schistosomiasis.
In Jiangxi, the schistosomiasis infection rate in some epidemic areas and townships is above 50%. Schistosomia infection occurred in Xinmin Township, Gaoyou County, Jiangsu Province in 1950, and 1,335 people died one after another. The problem of prevention and control of schistosomiasis is placed before the leaders of the New China.
For the sake of people's health, after Mao Zedong investigated the schistosomiasis epidemic on the spot in 1955, he listened specifically to reports from the Ministry of Health and medical experts on schistosomiasis. Mao Zedong pointed out: "Schistosomiasis is a disease that endangers the health of the people. It is related to the survival and reproduction of the nation, the development of production and the construction of new rural areas, and whether young people can join the army to protect the country. We should recognize the seriousness of the problem. The Communists have the responsibility to help the masses relieve their suffering and eliminate schistosomiasis."
On February 17, 1956, at the Supreme State Conference, Mao Zedong issued a battle call to "mobilize the whole party, mobilize the whole nation, and eliminate schistosomiasis."
The new republic must win a war without gunpowder in the field of health.
Under the unified leadership of the Central Leading Group for Prevention and Control of Schistosomiasis, the prevention and control of schistosomiasis has been carried out in 12 provinces, cities and districts in the south where schistosomiasis is prevalent. In April 1957, the State Council issued the "Instructions on Eliminating Schistosomiasis", and the Ministry of Health established the Schistosomiasis Prevention and Control Bureau.
By 1958, the high incidence of schistosomiasis in my country was finally effectively curbed.
On June 30, 1958, " People's Daily " published a long report entitled "The First Red Flag - Recording the Process of Eliminating Schistosomiasis in Yujiang County, Jiangxi Province". Deng Rumei, a farmer in Yujiang interviewed by a reporter, was tortured by schistosomiasis and was unable to have children after eight years of marriage. He sent away the "plague god" and restored his fertility. In 1958, Deng Rumei gave birth to his eldest son. She said that only by having health can we stay away from bitterness and enjoy the sweetness! Deng Rumei's family changes are a microcosm of the hundreds of family changes in the endemic areas of schistosomiasis in Yujiang County, Jiangxi Province.
Mao Zedong read the newspaper that day and couldn't sleep anymore. He "looked at the south sky from afar, and was happy to write a poem" and wrote "Seven-character verses: Sending the Plague God", lamenting that "there are many green waters and green mountains, and Hua Tuo has no choice but to have little insects." But now, "there are thousands of willows in spring breeze, and 600 million willows are all over the country." The successful prevention and treatment of
Schistosomiasis has sounded the clarion call for victory for the construction of a new health and medical system.
After the founding of New China, the Party and the government attached great importance to the health problems of the general public. In order to solve the serious situation of people's illnesses and lack of medical treatment, under the guidance of the four major health work policies of "facing workers, peasants and soldiers, prevention as the main focus, uniting traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and combining health work with mass movement", our country began to "focus on medical and health work in rural areas."
From 1966, the number of medical and health institutions nationwide increased to 207,000; provincial, municipal, regional and county-level health and epidemic prevention stations and maternal and child health stations have been established; smallpox, cholera , schistosomiasis, plague , leprosy and other diseases that seriously endanger people's health may have been extinct or effectively prevented and treated.
According to the principle of "combination of urban and rural areas, multiple forms, and reasonable distribution", my country's urban and rural comprehensive and specialized hospitals have grown from 4,179 in 1957 to 42,711 in 1965, and the proportion of health technicians to the total population has increased from an average of 1.61‰ in 1957 to 2.11‰ in 1965. By 1966, the national urban and rural health and medical network had basically been formed.
Source : Editor-in-chief of the Communist Party Member Network
丨Ding Xiao Guang
Editor 丨Zhang Li
Edited by Yuan Hao Bo
Submission Email: [email protected]
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