Wu Lien-teh it was a Sino-Malayan doctor who gained recognition for having fought an epidemic outbreak of pneumonic plague that hit Manchuria, China, at the beginning of the 20th century. He is also credited with having created a mask with filters that is considered the precursor to PFF2, one of the best masks in existence today.
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Youth
Wu Lien-teh was born on March 10, 1879, in Penang, in the Malaysia. His birth name was Ngoh Lean Tuck (he changed his name to Wu Lian-teh in 1908), being the son of parents of Chinese descent. About his family, it is known that his father worked as a goldsmith and that he had emigrated from Taishan, while his mother was Malay, but of Chinese descent.
![Wu Lien-teh was the Chinese physician responsible for combating the pneumonic plague outbreak that hit China at the beginning of the 20th century.[1]](/f/fe45bcb1f04f73d9f67b14808f4c51c7.jpg)
Little is known about Wu Lien-teh's youth, but among the known information is the fact that he studied at a local high school in Penang and who, after completing his basic studies, got a scholarship to enter the course of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. Wu Lien-teh was the
first Sino-Malayan student to study at Cambridge and graduated as one of the best students on the course.After studying at Cambridge, Wu Lien-teh still took postgraduate courses in several places in Europe. In Liverpool, for example, he studied bacteriology for a year and, in Paris, he researched diseases like malaria and tetanus.
medical career
After completing his studies in Europe, Wu Lien-teh returned to Malaysia, starting his career as a doctor. There he began working for the Kuala Lumpur Medical Research Institute, dedicating himself to the study of beribélaugh. Wu Lien-teh also engaged in campaigns against the consumption of opium, very common drug among Chinese.
In 1907, a Chinese delegation sent to Malaysia by the Qing dynasty issued an invitation for him to work at the Medical College of the Imperial Army. This college was located in Tianjin. He and his wife, Ruth Shu-chiung Huang, changed-if to China, and there Wu Lien-teh took over as deputy principal of the aforementioned college.
Acting in the Manchurian plague
At the late 1910, began to emerge the first news of a plague that was spreading in Harbin, a town located in Manchuria. The first victims of this disease are said to have been people from regions close to the Russian border. Wu Lien-teh was appointed to come to the region to investigate the epidemic.
Once there, Wu Lien-teh found a large number of dead, but to identify which disease affected the area, he needed to perform an autopsy, but the practice was not accepted in the culture Chinese. Thus, it was necessary to obtain the body of a foreigner who had died of the disease so that he could investigate what was happening in Harbin.
Wu Lien-teh's autopsy led him to the conclusion that the epidemic hitting Manchuria was pneumonic plague. From there, the doctoradvised the Chinese authorities to takein strict measures to fight the disease, as it was transmitted through the air and fluids of the human body. The measures suggested by Wu to fight the disease were|1|:
restrict the movement of people;
hospitalize the sick;
disinfect homes;
forbid people to keep in touch.
Dr. Wu Lien-teh also proposed thecremation of bodies, as there were a lot of unburied dead. He also feared that, after winter, the heat could contribute to a new outbreak of the disease. The cremation of bodies was seen as an extremely sacrilegious act for Chinese culture, but the health emergency forced the Chinese government to authorize the act.
Furthermore, another action by Wu Lien-teh was considered essential in combating the pneumonic plague outbreak. He he recommended that the authorities encouragessin the population using masks and, for this, he himself made a mask with several layers of cotton and gauze.
The various layers of cotton and gauze acted as filters, protecting people and preventing the sick from transmitting the disease by breathing. It is said that, through Wu's action, around 60,000 masks have been produced and distributed for the population years later, when a second epidemic outbreak of pneumonic plague started in 1920|2|.
THE mask created by Wu Lien-teh is considered the forerunner of the current model “PFF2” — known as that in Brazil, but called N95 in the United States — which is the mask that has been pointed out by some as the most effective for protecting people in the pandemic of coronavirus.
The actions to combat the pneumonic plague of 1910/1911 that were suggested by Wu Lien-teh worked and, after four months, there were no more cases of the disease in China. This epidemic that hit the region became known as the Manchurian plague, and the the success of China's health action was debated.O internationally at a conference that brought together great names in medicine.
Accessalso: Great Epidemics of History
Last years
After acting in the Manchurian plague, Wu Lien-tehbecame one of the most respected doctors in China and gained international renown. He continued to work on epidemic prevention and, years later, took over the Prevention Service in Northern Manchuria. Wu also served in the National Medical Association, chairing it from 1916 to 1920.
In 1930, Wu Lien-teh was even appointed to take over the National Quarantine Service. Wu Lien-teh's continued work as a doctor and sanitarian in China was affected by the conflict with Japan. The Japanese invasion that started the Second Sino-Japanese War forced Wu Lien-teh to leave China for Malaysia.
During the Second war World, members of the Malay resistance and Japanese troops were suspicious of Wu Lien-teh's loyalty, but he was saved on both occasions. Throughout his life, he continued to study and produce scientific content. He spent his last moments in his homeland and died on January 21, 1960, victim of a stroke.
Grades
|1| Dr Wu Lien-teh: modernising post-1911 China's public health service. To access, click on here [in English].
|2| Plague Masks: The Visual Emergence of Anti-Epidemic Personal Protection Equipment. To access, click on here [in English].
Image credits:
[1] commons
By Daniel Neves Silva
History teacher