Siberia and Far East Research Institute for Plague Control, Irkutsk, Russia
In China plague has been officially registered from 1754 (638 epidemics with total number of cases 2.5 millions and case-fatality rate 87.5%). Endemic areas started to form on the south of the country and then the disease gradually spread on seaside provinces, where to the end of the 19th century, due to reach of island territories and large international seaports, was characterized by pandemic spread. Epidemic manifestations of plague in China were observed during more than 200 years in 23 out of 36 administrative areas affecting continental and North-Eastern regions of the country, which are immediately adjacent to border of Russia. Pneumonic plague in Man-churia clearly demonstrated the role of transport communications in transmission of this deadly infection and pos-sibility of its spread on border regions of Siberia and Far East. Lengthy country’s border, intensive migration flows, large-scale international integration, developing of near-border trade, simplification of policy for transboundary traveling are the reasons for differentiated number of sanitary protective measures on administrative borders of Siberia and Far East.
Zh. Mikrobiol. (Moscow), 2008, No. 1, P. 95—99