Bulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public HealthBulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health2415-84102415-8429FSSBI «N.A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health»2497Научная статьяOriginal article Disease and the recovery of the colony: malaria in Hong Kong in the nineteenth centuryMikhelDmitry V.mikhel-dv@ranepa.ruRussian Presidential Academy of national Economy and Public AdministrationInstitute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences151220224899325112022Copyright © 2022,2022The history of epidemic control in Hong Kong is closely intertwined with that of mainland China, but it has significant peculiarities. For more than one hundred and fifty years, countering epidemics in Hong Kong was a matter solely for the British colonial administration, while the Chinese authorities were excluded from participating in assessing the scale of Hong Kong's epidemics and developing anti-epidemic mechanisms. A retrospective look at the history of epidemics in British Hong Kong allows not only a broader understanding of the history of Western colonialism in Asia, but also an understanding of the challenges that Western medicine faced outside the West, as well as an introduction to the epidemic control methods used by colonial administrators in the historical territory of China. An illustrative example of this is the malaria epidemic of 1843, which caused great casualties among the early Western inhabitants of Hong Kong and led to the subsequent adoption of extraordinary measures for the recovery of the colony.Hong KongBritish colonymalariafeverrecoveryГонконгбританская колониямаляриялихорадкаоздоровление1.Allgood G. China war, 1860; letters and journal. London; New York: Longmans, Green & Co; 1901:190.2.An ordinance for the preservation of good order and cleanliness within the colony of Hongkong, 20th March 1844. Historical laws of Hong Kong online. Hong Kong: Government printer; 1984:14-16.3.An ordinance to repeal ordinance no. 5 of 1844, entitled “An ordinance for the preservation of good order and cleanliness within the colony of Hongkong and its dependencies”, and to make other provisions in Lieu thereof., 26th December 1845. Historical laws of Hong Kong online. Hong Kong: Government printer; 1984:153-171.4.Corlett R. T. Environmental forestry in Hong Kong: 1871-1997. Forest ecology and management. 1999;116(1-3):93-105.5.Cowell C. The Hong Kong fever of 1843: Collective trauma and the reconfiguring of colonial space. Modern Asian studies. 2013:47(2):329-364.6.Eitel E. J. Europe in China: The history of Hongkong from the beginning to the year 1882. London: Luzac & company; 1895:588.7.Fortune R. A journey to the tea countries of China: Including Sung-Lo and the Bohea Hills; With a short notice of the East India company's tea plantations in the Himalaya mountains. London: John Murray; 1852:460.8.Martin R. M. Reports, minutes and despatches, on the British position and prospects in China. London: Harrison; 1846:132.9.Peckham R. Hygienic nature: Afforestation and the greening of colonial Hong Kong. Modern Asian studies. 2015;49(4):1177-1209.10.Sirr H. C. China and the Chinese: Their religion, character, customs, and manufacturers: The evils arising from the opium trade: with a glance at our religious, moral, political and commercial intercourse with the country. London: W. S. Orr & Co.; 1849:447.11.Wilson J. Medical notes on China. London: John Churchill; 1846:267.