Penang-born who fought plague

Another material from my personal archives. This is one of those rare non-chess newspaper clippings that I had kept over the years. This time, the subject matter was Dr Wu Lien-Teh who in 1911 had fought and eradicated the dreaded plague in northern China. The writer, Foong Thim Leng, had well-covered much of the known areas of Wu's life in China and Malaya. I'm sure the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society would be much interested in this story which came out 10 years before the society was founded. 

Penang-born who fought plague by Foong Thim Leng (The Star, March 29, 2002) 

IPOH: Dr Wu Lien-teh was a distinguished scientist and Cambridge-trained Chinese physician who fought the pneumonic plague in Manchuria in 1910-11 which claimed 60,000 deaths and threatened China.

 "The successful ending o[ this major plague epidemic covering a distance of 3,200km from the north-western border of Siberia to Peking, within a short period of four months, brought him international fame and marked the beginning of almost 30 years of devoted humanitarian service to China," says his eldest daughter, Dr Wu Yu-lin.

 Yu-lin, who resides in Singapore, is the author of the book Memories of Dr Wu Lien-teh - Plague Fighter.

 Wu Lien-the, whose father was a successful goldsmith in Penang, was born on the island in 1879 and studied at the Penang Free School.

He won the only Queen's Scholarship of 1896 and was the first Chinese admitted to Cambridge University for medical studies.

After obtaining First Class Honours in Natural Sciences, he proceeded to St Mary's Hospital, London, and won virtually all the available scholarships and prizes.

He did post-graduate studies under eminent scientists in Europe – research in malaria at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine under Ronald Ross, and in bacteriology, in Halle, Germany, under Karl Fraenkel and at the Institute Pasteur in Paris under Ellie Metchnikoff.

At 24, he completed his M.D. degree requirements two years ahead of time.

On his return to the Straits Settlement in 1903, there were no posts in the Colonial Medical Service for non-British specialists so he joined the newly established Institute of Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur for one year, researching into beri-beri, then a killer disease.

He went into private practice in Penang from 1904 to 1907 and also became actively involved in campaigns against opium addiction.

He founded and became the president and Physician-in-Chief of the Penang Anti-Opium Association and organised the first ever Anti-Opium Conference of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States, in Ipoh.

"His anti-opium campaign aroused considerable agitation amongst the powerful forces involved in the highly lucrative opium trade," says Yu-lin.

"When warnings from these quarters went unheeded and promises of bounteous 'compensation' were spurned, a search warrant was issued on Dr Wu's dispensary in Penang in 1907, followed by his prosecution for illegal possession of a 'deleterious drug' – one ounce of tincture of opium that he had purchased from a British lady practitioner three years earlier, in case he needed it to treat opium patients."

The Director of Public Prosecution claimed that it was a "test case", as Dr Wu technically required a licence to possess the one ounce of opium, which he did not have.

Dr Wu was duly convicted and ordered to pay a fine of one hundred dollars. The case attracted wide publicity abroad.

His appeal to the Supreme Court of Malaya was rejected.

Shortly after, he received two unexpected letters, one from London inviting him to attend an Anti-Opium Conference at the Queen's Hall that same year, and the other from the then Grand Councillor Yuan Shih-kai of the Chinese Government in Peking, offering him the post of Vice Director of the Imperial Army Medical College in Tientsin. He accepted both invitations.

On Dec 19, 1910, Dr Wu was directed by the Foreign Office, Peking, to travel to Harbin to investigate a mysterious disease that was killing victims by the hundreds.

Little did he realise that his mission would assume such proportions as the eradication of a terrifying continental pneumonic plague epidemic extending from the far west and north of Manchuria, through the capital itself to the provinces of Chihli and Shantung, and finally reaching as far south as Nanking and Shanghai.

"Dr Wu acted virtually as Commander-in-Chief of the huge anti-plague organisation and gave orders to doctors, police, military and civil officials alike,” said Yu-lin.

The most dramatic action taken was when he boldly asked for imperial sanction to cremate more than 3,000 corpses that had been lying unburied on the frozen ground. It proved to be the turning point of the epidemic.

In 1912, the Manchuria Plague Prevention Service was established with headquarters in Harbin, and it was on this foundation that Dr Wu began to modernise China's medical services and medical education.

He was instrumental in founding the Chinese Medical Association (1915), establishing the Central Epidemic Bureau in Peking (1919), and organising the National Quarantine Service.

He represented the Chinese Government at various international conferences held in and outside China.

In 1930 he was appointed Chief Technical Expert of the Ministry of Health to advise the government on important health matters.

He also embarked on work for the League of Nations and became a world authority of plague.

In 1937, Japan overran much of China after occupying Manchuria in 1931. With the retreat of the nationalists, Dr Wu decided to return to Penang. He was then 58.

That year he set up medical practice in Ipoh and quickly adjusted to living a new life in relative obscurity after a 30-year illustrious career.

After the Second World War, he declined invitations to participate in politics.

To encourage the young to share his love for reading, Dr Wu tirelessly collected donations to start the Perak Library (now The Tun Razak Library) in Ipoh, a free lending public library.

In his own medical practice at 12 Brewster Road (now Jalan Sultan Idris Shah), long queues were a common sight, and he was known as the doctor who gave free consultation and treatment to the poor.

He practised medicine until the age of 80, when he bought a new house in Penang for his retirement.

He died on Jan 21, 1960, aged 81, barely one week after moving into his new home.

The Times of London on Jan 27, 1960, wrote that "by his death, the world of medicine has lost a heroic and almost legendary figure".

A road named after Dr Wu can be found in Ipoh Garden South, a middle-class residential area in

Ipoh located between Hock l.ee Park and Ipoh Garden East. Along the road are two rows of double-storey terrace and semi-detached houses. The Kinta City Shopping Centre is located nearby.

Spelt by the City Council as Jalan Wu Lean Teh, it is one of the roads motorists would pass while taking a detour to their homes, the restaurants or the entertainment outlets in Ipoh Garden East and other residential areas in the vicinity in order to avoid the traffic jam at Jalan Tasek.

In Penang, a private road named Taman Wu Lien Teh is located near the Penang Free School. Dr Wu's romanised name, Gnoh Lean Tuck, appears third on the Penang Free School's plaque in honour of Queen's Scholars.