When the cholera pandemic broke out in Taiwan in 1919, the Taiwan Governor-General’s Office immediately established a central agency and devised a comprehensive pandemic prevention plan to be implemented by seaport inspection stations and local governments. The plan stipulated that if any patient was discovered, preventative vaccination should be carried out as much as possible, with the patient’s movement route as the center. Vaccination was mandatory for travelers and sailors traveling between mainland Japan and Taiwan. When ships were to leave or enter ports, inspection personnel were required to examine if there were carriers of the disease or if the personnel onboard had vaccination certificates.
If suspected cases were discovered in Taipei Prefecture or the neighboring, inspection personnel would deliver specimens to the health department of the Industrial Research Institute of Taiwan Governor-General’s Office or the bacteria test lab under the police department’s health division for bacteria culture testing. Furthermore, the government’s pandemic prevention measures were made known to the public via announcements, and people were asked to comply when cleaning was required. Also, the primary prevention measure was to promote and popularize vaccination to avoid the spread of cholera. Vaccination was mandatory for maritime personnel and those in close contact with patients and highly encouraged for others.