Wu Lien-teh: Google Doodle celebrates Chinese-Malaysian physician’s 142nd birthday, who widely considered for his work on Manchurian plague

Google Doodle celebrates the 142nd birthday of Chinese-Malaysian epidemiologist and physician Dr. Wu Lien-teh or Wu Lian De (伍連德; 伍连德), otherwise called Goh Lean Tuck and Ng Leen Tuck in Minnan and Cantonese literal interpretation respectively who prestigious for his work in public health and especially, the Manchurian plague of 1910–11, on March 10, 2021.

Who was Dr. Wu Lien-teh (伍連德)?

Wu Lien-teh was born on March 10 th, 1879 into a family of Chinese migrants in Penang, Malaya (modern Malaysia). He was the first medical student of Chinese descent to study at the University of Cambridge. He was likewise the first Malayan assigned for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1935.

His initial education was at the Penang Free School. Wu was conceded to Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1896, in the wake of winning the Queen’s Scholarship. He had a successful career at university, winning virtually every one of the accessible prizes and scholarships.

His undergrad medical years were spent at St Mary’s Hospital, London and he at that point proceeded with his studies at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (under Sir Ronald Ross), the Pasteur Institute, Halle University, and the Selangor Institute.

In September 1903 Wu joined the Institute for Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur as the first research student.

Wu got back to the Straits Settlement in 1903. Some time from that point onward, he wedded Ruth Shu-chiung Huang.

Wu Lien-teh (伍連德) spent his initial medical career researching beri-beri and roundworms (Ascarididae) prior to entering private practice at the finish of 1904 in Chulia Street, Penang.

Wu and his family moved to China in 1907. During his time in China, Wu’s wife and two of their three children died.

Wu Lien-teh (伍連德) remarried and had four more children.

Dr. Wu Lien-teh started work for the Chinese government in 1907 and became vice director of the Army Medical College, situated in Tianjin, in 1908.

Following his doctoral studies, he acknowledged a position as the vice director for China’s Imperial Army Medical College in 1908.

Read More: Interesting facts about Plague Fighter Dr. Wu Lien-teh

At the point when an obscure pandemic burdened north-western China in 1910, the Chinese government designated Dr. Wu Lien-teh to explore the illness, which he recognized as the exceptionally infectious pneumonic plague that spread from one human to another through respiratory transmission.

To battle the infection, Dr. Wu Lien-teh planned and created a special surgical mask with cotton and gauze, adding a few layers of cloth to filter inhalations. It is believed that the N95 mask is the descendant of Wu’s design.

He encouraged individuals to wear his recently designed mask and worked with government authorities to set up quarantine stations and hospital s, restricted travel, and apply reformist sanitization strategies; his leadership contributed significantly to the furthest limit of the pandemic (known as the Manchurian plague) by April 1911—within four months of being entrusted with controlling its spread.

Wu Lien-teh (伍連德) led the International Plague Conference in Mukden (Shenyang) in April 1911, a historic event went to by researchers from the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands, Russia, Mexico, and China. The conference occurred more than three weeks and highlighted demonstrations and experiments.

Wu later introduced a plague research paper at the International Congress of Medicine, London in August 1911 which was published in The Lancet in the same month.

In 1912, Dr. Wu Lien-teh became the first director of the Manchurian Plague Service. He was a founder member and first president of the Chinese Medical Association (1916–1920).

In 1915, Wu established the Chinese Medical Association, the nation’s biggest and oldest non-governmental medical organization.

In 1929, he was named a trustee of the ‘Nanyang Club’ in Penang by Cheah Cheang Lim.

During the 1930s he became the first director of the National Quarantine Service.

During the Japanese attack of Manchuria, in November 1931, Dr. Wu Lien-teh was detained and interrogated by the Japanese specialists under suspicion of being a Chinese spy.

In 1935, Dr. Wu Lien-teh was the first Malaysian—and the first person of Chinese descent–nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work to control the pneumonic plague. A dedicated advocate and practitioner of medical advancement, Wu’s endeavors changed public health in China as well as that of the whole world.

Around 1939, Dr. Wu Lien-teh moved back to Malaya and kept on working as general practitioner in Ipoh.

Wu Lien-teh (伍連德) gathered donations to begin the Perak Library (presently the Tun Razak Library) in Ipoh, a free-lending public library, and donated to Shanghai City Library and the University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Wu Lien-teh was a mandarin of the second rank and sat on advisory committees for the League of Nations. He was given awards by the Czar of Russia and the President of France, and was awarded honourary degrees by Johns Hopkins University, Peking University, the University of Hong Kong, and the University of Tokyo.

On 21 January 1960, Wu Lien-teh (伍連德) died of a stroke while in his home in Penang.

In 2015, the Wu Lien-Teh Institute opened at Harbin Medical University. In 2019, The Lancet launched an annual Wakley-Wu Lien Teh Prize to pay tribute to Wu and the publication’s founding editor, Thomas Wakley.

Dr. Wu Lien-teh is viewed as the first person to modernise China’s medical services and medical education.

On March 10, 2021, Google observes Dr. Wu Lien-teh’s 142nd Birthday with a Google Doodle.