Epidemics and Quarantine in the Dutch East Indies
Indonesia faced several epidemics during the Dutch East Indies era. From outbreaks of cholera and pestilence in the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the early of the 20th century up until the impact of the Spanish Flu. Those pandemics resembled the current situation. After a late response to the outbreak, the colonial government finally enacted a regional quarantine. Many things can be learned from past epidemics. Mitigation strategies, appropriate isolation measures, and rapid responses are needed.
Isma Savitri
May 19, 2020
A MID the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, F.X. Domini B.B. Hera often recalls a story told to him by his mother. According to this historian and researcher at the Center for Culture and Frontier Studies at Brawijaya University, Malang, East Java, his mother told him about an outbreak in 1911, when their town was hit by a plague. The disease was carried by rodent fleas which were infected with the Yersinia pestis bacteria. “Man
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