Dr Wu Lien-teh: modernising post-1911 China’s public health service

Lee, Kam Hing; Wong, Danny Tze-Ken; Ho, Tak; Ng, Kwan Hoong

doi:10.11622/smedj.2014025

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…Looking back at history, lock-down and wearing mask was seen to be an effective step implemented by Dr Wu Lien-teh in effort to control the spread of pneumonic plague virus in 1910. Dr Wu Lien-teh, a Malaysian born doctor gained fame by ending the pneumonic plague in China and encouraging people at that time to wear gauze-and-cotton masks, controlled the people's movement, instructed to hospitalize all infected patients, carried out disinfection in open areas, mass burials of the deaths, and prohibited close contact [34] . His endless effort managed to contain the plague within seven months (March 1911).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: Could this virus become a possible global pandemic

Letchumanan¹,

Mutalib²,

Goh³

et al. 2020

Prog Micobes Mol Biol

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In December 2019, the emerging of a new coronavirus-induced pneumonia created a distress among people in China and the international community. This virus was identified as novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV. At the time this Review went to press, the virus has spread to across 27 countries, infecting 17,488 people and caused 362 deaths. The transmission of 2019-nCoV to individuals of different countries is predominantly through close contact with an infected person. Based on the available data, there is a rising trend of infected and death cases. At this point, there is no specific drug or vaccine to treat infected patients besides supportive care. Nevertheless, researchers and doctors around the world have reported the success of using existing antiviral drugs to treat patients.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: Could this virus become a possible global pandemic

Letchumanan¹,

Mutalib²,

Goh³

et al. 2020

Prog Micobes Mol Biol

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show abstract

“…One French doctor Dr Gerald Mesny dismissed his mask with this racist comment, " What can we expect from a China man ?" Mesny went on to work without a mask, caught the plague and succumbed to the disease shortly after [2]. It is believed that the present N95 mask is a descendent of Wu's design.…”

Section: The Arrival Of the Modern Maskmentioning

confidence: 97%

Journey of Surgical Mask : from Bra to N 95 in COVID -19

Bhattacharya¹,

Bhattacharya²

2020

Sri Lanka j Surg

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The role of the surgical mask during COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly very vital in preventing infections. A review of the evolution of the face mask from the animal bladder of the past to the present N 95 is being done with an emphasis on the importance and problems currently faced by the surgical community due to constant wearing of N 95 mask in the hospital. Though N 95 mask is the ideal mask during Coronavirus pandemic, there are a few issues like carbon dioxide retention and headache which is hampering its prolonged use.

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“…This logic emerged in the early twentieth century and was incorporated into the enlightening discourses of the "Health Education Movement" until the end of 1930s, and it has further developed in the "Patriotic Hygiene Campaign" since 1952, which, according to Ruth Rogaski, stated that "all citizens should be hyper vigilant, intensely aware and physically involved in the life of the nation" (Rogaski 2004, 286). The medical and prophylactic institutions established during and after the Manchurian Plague included the foundation of the Chinese public health service, with Wu Lien-teh as one of its founders (Lee et al 2014). Noted for his rationalism and professionalism, Wu was not personally interested in political activities; yet, as the past could be shaped by the present, the inextricable interplay among hygienic modernity, patriotism and anti-imperial nationalism makes it possible to re-examine the narrative on facemasks, which was initially established during the double crisis faced by the Qing Empire in 1910.…”

Section: The Relationship Between Nationalism and Hygienic Modernity mentioning

confidence: 99%

“To honour cleanness and shame filth”: medical facemasks as the narrative of nationalism and modernity in China

Peng

2020

Social Semiotics

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As the Covid-19 pandemic has swept across the world, the wearing of medical facemasks has become a hot topic on social media. In China, the relevant discourses are entangled with codes of medical science, national self-esteem and appropriated modernity. These discourses can be dated back to the narrative established by Dr Wu Lien-teh, the great fighter in the Manchurian plagues of 1910-1911 and 1920-1921. This paper reveals that Wu and his colleagues used different strategies when displaying to the Western world their achievements in the anti-plague battle and when proving the effectiveness of the Western medical and hygienic system to Chinese people. Wu and his colleagues used metonymies, analogues and metaphors on or related to medical facemasks to illustrate the possibility of building a modernised nation with sovereignty. Because the construction of a sanitary system in China has always been labelled as a patriotic movement (Rogaski, Ruth. 2004. Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 285-298), the wearing of medical facemasks has constituted an important part of the narrative of nationalism and hygienic modernity. This discourse continues to play a significant role in today's campaign against the coronavirus.

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Dr Wu Lien-teh: modernising post-1911 China’s public health service

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: Could this virus become a possible global pandemic

Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: Could this virus become a possible global pandemic

Journey of Surgical Mask : from Bra to N 95 in COVID -19

“To honour cleanness and shame filth”: medical facemasks as the narrative of nationalism and modernity in China

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