Let's learn about- Dr Wu Lien Teh (Wu Liande 伍连德)
- copingwithcovid
- May 16, 2020
- 3 min read
The plague fighter and father of the Chinese public health system
By Minoli Ekanayake
Dr Wu began his medical career after moving to England at Emmanuel College (University of Cambridge) in 1896, where he gained his M.D.
Fall of 1910, a fatal epidemic which originated in Russian Siberia, broke out in the northeastern region of China (Harbin) and claimed over 60,000 lives within just 4 months. Following his arrival at Harbin, Dr Wu performed China’s first-ever autopsy on a Japanese woman, a victim of said epidemic. He identified that the causative organism was none other than Yersinia Pestis – the face behind the infamous pneumonic plague with a case-fatality ratio of 30% to 100% without treatment.
It was already known that the disease could be transmitted from animals like rats and fleas to humans, which may have been facilitated through a busy fur trade during the epidemic. Additionally, Dr Wu also believed it could be transmitted from person to person through their breath or sputum- contrary to what was known. It is not a surprise that his idea was received with disbelief from the medical community. Dr Girard Mesny, a well known French doctor doubted Dr Wu’s claims; he refused to wear gauze and a mask only to succumb to the plague several days later. His death shocked the international community.
Meanwhile, Dr Wu had set up quarantine units for patients to be hospitalised in, whilst their homes were sterilized. The public were urged to don gauze-and-cotton masks. Additionally, he imposed travel bans in and out of affected regions.
He convinced the Russian and Japanese railway authorities to halt the operation of all trains in 1911 to cut off all transportation, and the disease transmission in Northern-East China.
Nonetheless, the death toll in Harbin continued to rise because the corpses of the diseased served as a reservoir for the bacteria. To tackle this problem, Wu sent a memorandum to the Emperor in 1911 and was granted permission to cremate of thousands of unburied bodies and coffins of the plague victims-despite resistance from the community.
On 1 March 1911, the last case of the Manchurian bubonic plague was recorded; the seven-month epidemic saw its end by the time the Chinese New Year arrived. On the advice of Dr Wu, the International Plague Conference was held in Mukden from April 3rd to April 28th, 1911. Renowned epidemiologists and scientists from 11 countries, including the USA, UK, Japan, Russia, and France attended; His work on plague prevention was highly praised by all.
Wu became the China Medical Association’s first president from 1916 to 1920, during which he helped set up over 20 hospitals. He later presented a plague research paper at the International Congress of Medicine in London on August 1911 which was published in The Lancet in the same month. Dr Wu was the first president of the China Medical Association (1916–1920) and directed the National Quarantine Service (1931–1937). According to writers Zhongliang Ma and Yanli Li, Dr Wu, in later years, devoted much his efforts setting up hospitals and medical colleges and founded the Chinese Medical Society.
Wu was regarded as the father of modern medicine by the Chinese. In 1930, he was appointed as the first director of the National Quarantine Service in China. For his contributions, Wu was conferred honorary doctorates by Peking University, Hong Kong University and Tokyo University. He also became the first ethnic Chinese nominated for the Nobel prize in 1935. Dr Wu’s policies successfully contained a plague in an era where antibiotics were not available.
So, thank you Dr Wu!
About the author
Minoli Ekanayke
Minoli is a final year medical student at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (Sri Lanka). She was prepared to dive into her commitments as a final year medical student, but now finds herself working towards her degree in her dorm.
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