The Coveted “Lung Shot”: Deploying Streptomycin in Hong Kong in the Early Cold War Period

Abstract

This study examines the deployment of streptomycin as a rush order in Hong Kong in the early 1950s. Tuberculosis was a significant public health concern in the region, and the influx of refugees from mainland China was contributing to the deterioration of sanitary conditions in the port city. Streptomycin, an antibiotic synthesized in the 1940s, was considered the sole effective drug for tuberculosis prior to the advent of antiniazide (NIH) and combination therapies in the mid-1950s. This article examines the availability of a previously efficacious pharmaceutical as an illustration of “contested cooperation” in health care in the absence of effective public health measures. This metaphorical cooperation refers to a network that was not well planned or organized but contingent upon the effects of competitive relationships. As a result, it can be described as a contestation. In Cantonese, the drug was colloquially designated fai zam, which translates to “lung shot.” In Hong Kong, fai zam became a highly sought-after commodity amidst the backdrop of a severe tuberculosis epidemic. Additionally, it was a medication dispensed by charitable neighborhood organizations through mass injections. During the Korean War, the United States embargo on China resulted in Hong Kong becoming a key hub for mainland Chinese merchants seeking to source the drug. Due to its commercial value, the logistics of streptomycin became integrated into global stock transfers and a collaboration of humanitarian efforts aimed at alleviating the burden of care in the TB hotspot in East Asia. By examining the ways in which streptomycin was mobilized to serve various purposes in Hong Kong, this article aims to historicize the highly politicized material culture and the complex intertwining of public health and care in the port city at the forefront during the early period of the Cold War.