Organization of sanitary supervision and fight against typhus epidemic in industrial areas of Kuzbass in 1920-1923

This article is devoted to the problem of the spread of infectious diseases in the coal regions of the Kuzbass during the implementation of the policies of Military Communism in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and the beginning of the New Economic Policy. The sanitary and epidemiological situation in mining settlements is detailed and documented. The reasons for the spread of the Typhus Epidemic in the coal mines have been identified. Through the use of the example of the spread of the Typhus Epidemic in the Anzhero-Sudzhensk mines, the proportion of infected residents of mining villages has been shown and identified among which the highest percentage were famine refugees from the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The characteristics of those infected are given under classification of age groups and the types of typhus they were infected with. Attention is focused on the consolidation of the efforts of the Siberian Soviet authorities, the trade unions, the mining departments and medical institutions in the fight against the Typhus Epidemic. Prior to the creation of the state Sanitary-Epidemiological Service, the functions of sanitary control were carried out by emergency commissions organized for the fight against typhus and by so-called sanitary troikas. The stages of the formation of sanitary supervision in the coal regions of Kuzbass are identified and detailed. The first of which was the reaction of local authorities to the growth of the epidemic. The second was distinguished by a systematic approach to fight the epidemic which included preventive measures, including the organization of supervision and control of the social sphere in the mining settlements, which reduced the risk caused by the epidemics. It has been concluded that the sanitary and epidemiological service created in Kuzbass, together with local medical personnel and the support of the Soviet authorities, were able to contain and eliminate the Typhus Epidemic.