The plague fighter: Wu Lien-teh and the beginning of the Chinese public health system

Annals of Science
C Flohr

Abstract

At the end of 1910, when the Qing dynasty was on the verge of collapse and the whole Chinese empire in a process of transformation, North Manchuria was devastated by a large pneumonic plague epidemic. The Russian and Japanese governments wanted to use the outbreak of the disease as a pretext to invade north-east China, making plague an issue of international politics. At this dramatic moment the empire relied on the skills of the young Chinese doctor Wu Lien-teh, the first Chinese medical graduate from Cambridge. Wu investigated the disease on the spot, chaired an international plague conference in Shenyang (Manchuria) in April 1911, and, later on, became the figurehead of fundamental public health reforms in Republican China. Highly ambitious, striving for personal fame and international renown for China, supported by an excellent network of personal connections, and equipped with a medical training considered the best in the world at the time, he launched on a startling career as one of China's key medical reformers and international representatives. His history is an example of the inseparable links between personal fate and historical events, and between the interests of scientists, medical men, politicians, and businessmen...Continue Reading

Citations

Feb 27, 2014·Singapore Medical Journal·Kam Hing LeeKwan Hoong Ng
Feb 28, 2015·International Journal of Infectious Diseases : IJID : Official Publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases·He LiuYanhua Hao
Nov 19, 2020·Expert Review of Medical Devices·Sai SaranNamrata S Rao

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