Prosperity and Disease Brought through Exchanges

Commerce has become brisk in the modern era, and exchanges have spread rapidly among different peoples, nations, and continents. Endemic diseases from each geographical region have also passed through this international trade network, crossing national borders, spreading to various nations and continents, sometimes developing into raging pandemics that cause serious damage. As such, the entire world has become a single “cultural sphere of disease.” A classic example is the cholera outbreaks that swept through the world in the 19th century. The Spanish flu outbreak in the early 20th century has also gone down in history as a horrible pandemic that killed more people than those who died in World War I.

• The Dark Side of Modern Exchanges

  The scale of human movement and exchanges expanded rapidly in the 19th century as imperialism spread, industry developed, and transportation advanced rapidly with the use of the steam engine. These developments had an absolute effect upon pandemic cycles and their speed of spread. The cholera outbreak that hit northeast India in 1817 followed the movement of British troops that were stationed in India at that time, and the disease had reached every part of the country by the following year. In 1820, the pandemic broke out in Europe, starting with Great Britain, and then was reported in spots of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Joseon, on the Korean Peninsula, was not spared either. Thereafter cholera epidemics broke out repeatedly, and the disease reached pandemic proportions no fewer than seven times.

• 1918: Act 1 in the Pandemic Period

  The first Spanish flu outbreak occurred in 1918, and this developed into an unprecedented pandemic in terms of its speed of spread and scale of destructiveness. The place of origin of this particular influenza has never been pinpointed, but it is believed that the flu virus spread on a large scale because of the movement of troops from various countries during the latter part of the First World War. Five hundred million people were infected with the virus within just one and a half years. The death toll estimates range from 50 to 100 million people. At the time news reports in diverse languages were released in many different countries, concerning the status of the Spanish flu outbreak and examples of the devastation it caused. This event marked the first time that mask-wearing was made mandatory in some countries when using mass transportation or visiting public places.

The Period for the Return of Contagious Diseases

Medical treatment advanced markedly in the 20th century, led by the introduction of vaccines and antibiotics, which greatly improved the ability of people to respond to infectious diseases and the related complications. In 1948, US Secretary of State George C. Marshall announced that contagious diseases were about to be wiped out. This heightened people’s expectations that the long and exhausting battle with contagious disease was coming to an end. In fact, smallpox, which has plagued humankind for such a long time, was eventually conquered by 1980. Despite the universal hope that humankind had been completely freed from the threat of contagious diseases, the world was hit by the HIV and AIDS epidemics in the 1980s. Since then, new contagious diseases have appeared one after another; pandemics have continued, and the cycle of major pandemic events has shortened.

• Response: Until Everyone is Safe

  International cooperation and response to contagious diseases have become important now that the entire world has become a single “cultural sphere of disease.” The cholera outbreaks during the 19th century prompted the establishment of the International Sanitary Conference in Paris in 1851, and the first-ever International Sanitary Convention was concluded in 1892. This served as the basis for the establishment of the World Health Organization in 1948. The Republic of Korea officially joined the WHO a year later and became part of the international system to cooperate on public health issues. The international community has been united through the WHO to fight contagious diseases. As mentioned above, smallpox was finally eradicated for good in 1980 after the world worked together under the WHO’s direction.

• Warning: No One is Safe

  The eradication of smallpox gave the impression that all contagious diseases could be subjugated before long. However, new contagious diseases have managed to cross over the anti-epidemic barriers that humankind has erected and they continue to appear. The list includes HIV, avian flu, SARS, MERS, Influenza A(H1N1), Ebola, and the Zika virus as well as COVID-19 and monkeypox. Those contagious diseases that are threatening humanity in recent decades are zoonotic diseases, meaning they have been transmitted to humans from animals. Many experts identify the destruction of the environment and climate change brought about by the growing human population and industrialization as the root causes for the increase in zoonotic diseases. Indiscriminate economic development has increased the contact of humans with wild animals’ habitats, and the pathogens that infect wild animals have begun to infect humans as well. Today, no one living in the world is safe.

Re-connect

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated that a contagious disease outbreak not only affects the health of individuals; it has a tremendous impact on all of society. Weaknesses in our society have become apparent in many places. For example, the severed connections between nations and geographical regions have collapsed global supply chains. Vaccines have been distributed inequitably, based on the economic power of the recipient country, and certain people have become victims of groundless bias and discrimination. Moreover, environmental destruction and climate change are cited as fundamental causes for zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19. Thus, we have been awakened to the fact that this problem is far more serious than previously imagined.

Such problems are also factors that hinder our efforts to overcome the pandemics that plague humans. The COVID-19 pandemic has already shown us contagious diseases cannot be resolved completely through a medical response alone. What must be done to make us all safe?

Epilogue

Advancements in transportation and communication have brought the entire world together. It is now impossible to avoid the spread of unusual pathogens, given the movement of people and trade in the global society of the 21st century. Amidst this reality, the World Health Organization encourages the people of the world to come together in solidarity and cooperation to defeat COVID-19, proclaiming “No one is safe until everyone is safe.”

Experts predict large-scale pandemics will occur regularly in the future, led by zoonotic diseases. The end of the COVID-19 pandemic does not spell the end to all pandemics. Rather, we have embarked on a long journey of preparation for the next one. If this is the case, what steps must we all take? Well, why don’t we (1) maintain sustainable ecosystems, (2) increase the physical distance between people and the next pathogen to come, and (3) maintain communities that face the threat of contagious disease together rather than viewing others as potential carriers? We must all “reconnect” without failure until we are all safe.

Primary exhibition materials

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  Political illustration with the fear of cholera outbreak 1883 · Friedrich Graetz(1842~1912)
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  Jenchuan(Incheon) Corea Provisional Regulations for the Prevention of the Importation of Cholera （現議不許瘟疫進港暫設章程） The late 19th century · SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY KYUJANGGAK INSTITUTE FOR KOREAN STUDIES
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  Notifying passengers without masks to deny boarding 1918 · LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
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  The Bulletin of the National Institute for Prevention of Infectious Diseases, VOL. 1 1949 · National Museum of Korean Contemporary History
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  Baby Notebook, Parenting Handbook 1976, 1979 · Private collection
• A child with a sick chicken A nestless bat
  [Animation]
  1) A child with a sick chicken, 2) A nestless bat
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  A demonstration in Atlanta against anti-Asian racism after the COVID-19 outbreak 2021 · YonhapNews
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  I am the Arctic 2020 · Jeon Changhwan
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  The Gray Age 2021 · Jeon Changhwan