Chapter 26 Section 2 "Epidemic Prevention Fighter" Wu Lien-teh

The next thing I want to talk about is Wu Lien Teh (1879-1960 A.D.), who is known as the "fighter against the epidemic".Wu Lien-teh's greatest contribution is in the field of epidemic prevention, and he is well-known in the world's medical circles as an authority on epidemic prevention science.He was born in Penang, Malaya, and received elementary education in English. In 1896, he was admitted to the Queen's Scholarship to study medicine at Emmanuel College of Cambridge University.It can be seen that there are many similarities between Wu Lien-teh's social background, educational and cultural background and Lin Wenqing's.Wu Lien-teh is a very diligent student with excellent academic performance and has won many awards and bonuses.After passing rigorous examinations, he was awarded a scholarship to intern at St. Mary's Hospital for three years.He is the first Chinese to be allowed to intern at the hospital.Wu Lien-teh spent seven years studying abroad in Europe, and did research at the University of Halle in Germany and the famous Institut Pasteur in France. In 1903 he received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Cambridge.After completing his studies, he returned to Malaya, where he studied tropical diseases at the Kuala Lumpur Medical School and later practiced medicine in Penang.He also spent part of his time serving the overseas Chinese community, participating in social reforms, and opposing overseas Chinese smoking opium. In 1907, he was recruited back to serve the motherland.His first position was the deputy supervisor of the Tianjin Imperial Army Medical School, responsible for the training of military doctors.Since then, Wu Lien-teh has served in the Chinese medical and health circles for 30 consecutive years.He not only devoted himself to the front of epidemic prevention and extermination, but also devoted himself to the administrative and research work of the national medical and health circles. In 1915, he participated in the founding of the Chinese Medical Association, served as the president, and was in charge of the editorial affairs of the "Chinese Medical Journal", and did a lot of useful work to promote the development of modern Chinese medicine.He also founded several hospitals, and worked in one of them, Beijing Central Hospital, for four years.He has successively served as the medical officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the chief medical officer of the Jinghan, Jingzhang, Jingfeng, Jinpu and other railways. In 1930, he was appointed as the supervisor of the national quarantine office, responsible for supervising the implementation of the newly promulgated national health and quarantine regulations.

In 1910, he led a fight against the epidemic, which was a major event in his life. At the end of 1910, Harbin discovered that the Black Death was prevalent, and the epidemic was very serious.Wu Lien-teh was sent to the epidemic area to investigate the epidemic and was responsible for leading a team to fight against the plague.When recalling this incident, he later said: "At that time, no one was willing to leave the civilized and comfortable life in Beijing, let alone venture to the northeast where the plague was prevalent, so we went." After the first line, very strong measures were taken.The first is to strictly control traffic, establish quarantine areas and patient shelters, and strictly disinfect to prevent the spread of the epidemic.In order to do this effectively, he mobilized the military and police and strictly managed it.The second is to focus on cremating the corpses.When Wu Lien-teh first arrived in the epidemic area, the epidemic was developing, and many people died. At most, the daily death toll reached more than 180 people.At that time, cremation was considered immoral, so there were rows of coffins waiting for burial.And burying the coffin with the infected corpse is tantamount to expanding the source of the epidemic.In order to promote cremation, he had to ask the emperor to make an order.A few days later, the "Sacred Edict" arrived and granted his request.Wu Lien-teh immediately organized manpower to gather more than 2,000 corpses together and incinerate them.The adjacent Russian epidemic area also followed China's approach, and even dug out the coffins that had been buried in the ground and cremated them.Wu Lien-teh's measures had a great effect, and the epidemic was brought under control in March of the following year.Later, from 1917 to 1921, two epidemics occurred successively in Shanxi and Northeast China, and Wu Lien-teh went to the affected areas to participate in the fight against the epidemic.

Due to his outstanding contribution to the eradication and research of epidemic diseases, prestigious universities such as the University of Hong Kong awarded him an honorary doctorate, and elected him as an academician of the Academia Sinica. He has attended various international medical conferences many times.Based on his many years of practical experience and research, he has written a number of high-level research reports, academic papers, and monographs such as "On Pneumonia", "Cholera", and "History of Chinese Medicine" (co-authored with others), Famous in the world of medical science.

In 1937, Wu Lien-teh ended his 30-year medical and health activities in the motherland and returned to Malaya to practice medicine there.In his later years, he wrote a very rich English autobiography "Epidemic Prevention Fighter", which narrated his life experience, and also described many people and events of his contemporaries. He died in Penang in 1960 at the age of 81.