Li Huanying: With great love in my heart, I protect all living beings and only wish that there is no leprosy in the world

The last Sunday of January every year is World Leprosy Day. January 29, 2023 is the 70th World Leprosy Day and the 36th China Leprosy Festival. The theme of this year's event is "Carrying forward the spirit of the times and eliminating the harm of leprosy". On this special day, let us remember a model doctor who has made outstanding contributions to China's leprosy prevention and treatment.

She was born into a scholarly family with a good family background, but she chose infectious disease prevention and control, which is considered a daunting task by many people, as her career; she once lived overseas with her family, had a decent job with a high salary, but resolutely returned to China to work hard; she remained unmarried and had no children, but was regarded as a "mother" by many patients who have been reborn... She is Li Huanying, the world-renowned leprosy prevention and control expert.

Bid farewell to WHO and devote oneself to serving the motherland

Li Huanying was born in Beijing in August 1921. When she was a child, she lived with her parents in Berlin, Germany, and experienced the rapid development of Western medicine. In 1945, Li Huanying graduated with honors from the School of Medicine of Tongji University in Shanghai. The following year, she went to Johns Hopkins University in the United States to pursue a master's degree in bacteriology and public health. After graduation, she stayed at the school as an assistant researcher in the Department of Microbiology.

In 1950, Li Huanying was recommended by Johns Hopkins University to become one of the first officials of the World Health Organization. During her seven years in office, she was sent to many countries in Asia, America and other places, and made strenuous efforts to curb the spread of diseases such as venereal diseases and yaws (also known as "tropical berry sores") in poor and backward areas, which was well received by the WHO.

In 1957, the WHO invited Li Huanying to "renew her contract for five years". At that time, Li Huanying's family had moved to the United States, and her parents and siblings all hoped that she would stay in the United States. However, Li Huanying politely declined the invitation from the WHO. She kept it a secret from her family and traveled to many places before returning to her motherland via Moscow in 1958.
"At that time, the People's Republic of China had just been established and there was a lot of work to be done. Talents were urgently needed. I read the news that Qian Xuesen resolutely returned to China in an American magazine, and I was deeply touched. As a Chinese, I longed to return to the embrace of my motherland and dedicate my best years to it," Li Huanying recalled.

After returning to Beijing, Li Huanying was assigned to work at the Central Institute of Dermatology and Venereology. In order to cooperate with the national plan to completely eliminate sexually transmitted diseases, Li Huanying accepted the first task after returning to China - the syphilis spirochete braking test. This was an extremely cutting-edge test at the time, because the spirochete could not be cultured in vitro at that time. The laboratory equipment was simple and there was not even ultraviolet disinfection equipment. Li Huanying made do with what he had and used carbon dioxide spray water for disinfection. He also made a homemade carbon dioxide incubator and used his own rabbits for the experiment, which was ultimately successful.

After that, Li Huanying carried out leprosy antigen detection and successfully extracted leprosy lipid antigen (PGL) by self-reliance and using a native method. In order to verify the effect, Li Huanying conducted experiments on himself. This was a very risky move, because there was no specific medicine for leprosy at that time, and once infected, one would really become a leprosy patient. Fortunately, the experiment was successful, but Li Huanying also left a clearly visible scar on his upper arm forever. Immediately afterwards, Li Huanying took the lead in carrying out fluorescent antibody tests in my country, and reached the international advanced level at that time.

After the "three years of natural disasters", her parents were worried about Li Huanying being alone in China, so they came to Hong Kong in 1964 to mobilize her to reunite in the United States. Facing her elderly parents, Li Huanying said: "Life in China is indeed very hard, but I am not the only one who suffers. As a doctor, it would be better for me not to return to China if I abandon it now! I am proud to serve the motherland and the people." Her parents were deeply moved by their daughter's firm patriotism. When they said goodbye at the airport, her father's eyes were full of tears, and her mother didn't say a word. Li Huanying didn't expect that this farewell would be her final farewell to her parents!

In 1980, Li Huanying went to the United States to visit her parents' graves and reunite with her brothers and sisters. She once again refused her relatives' requests to stay: "I am Chinese, my roots are in China, my career is in China. If I leave my motherland, what is the value of my life?"

She is alone, but she is the "mother" of many patients

In 1970, Li Huanying first met a leprosy patient in a leprosy village in Jiangsu Province. This gave her a great shock, and she was determined to conquer leprosy. At the end of 1978, Li Huanying, who was nearly 60 years old, was transferred to Beijing Friendship Hospital and worked as a researcher at the Beijing Institute of Tropical Medicine. From then on, she devoted all her energy to the prevention and treatment of leprosy and research.

At that time, Li Huanying learned that the World Health Organization was studying a new method of combined chemotherapy to treat leprosy. The drug formula had been completed, but there was a lack of clinical trials. Through visits and investigations across the country, Li Huanying successfully obtained free drug support and trial projects from the World Health Organization, and proposed to combine advanced foreign treatment methods with China's actual conditions, and selected Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province and several counties with high leprosy incidence in Weifang, Shandong Province as pilot areas for treatment, and took the lead in carrying out short-term combined chemotherapy that stopped taking the drug after 24 months.

At that time, in Xishuangbanna Prefecture, leprosy patients were called "pipa ghosts". If one person in the family was sick, the whole family would be driven out of the village and moved to a remote mountain forest far away from the villagers to reclaim wasteland and produce for self-help. Due to lack of knowledge, people were afraid of leprosy. Medical practitioners would immediately take a detour when seeing leprosy patients, and those who delivered medicine could only pass the medicine to the patients through the window with a stick. The fear, rejection and discrimination of the outside world made the patients suffer both physical and mental torture.

In 1983, Li Huanying brought new drugs applied for by the World Health Organization to three leprosy villages including Nanxing Village in Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, to carry out pilot treatment. She set out at 6 o'clock every morning, walked 10 kilometers along the mountain road, passed a river to enter the leprosy village, and went to every patient's home to persuade them to take medicine. When treating leprosy patients, Li Huanying not only did not wear isolation clothing, but also shook hands and hugged them. When she was thirsty, she scooped up water from the patient's home and drank it. She would always stay for lunch and eat at the patient's home.
Leprosy patients have numb hands and feet, and they can't even feel the heat when holding a hot brazier. Therefore, Li Huanying never tires of teaching them how to prevent skin damage and ulceration, and often reaches into the dirty shoes that patients have just taken off to feel for sand and nails before helping them put them on.

Someone once asked Li Huanying, aren't you afraid? "Doctors can't be afraid! It's like soldiers know that bullets are powerful, but don't they still rush forward on the battlefield?" "I even hope I get infected - so that you can see with your own eyes that I can cure it!" In order to standardize the experiment and monitor it in the future, Li Huanying even moved the laboratory into the leprosy village. Together with the experimenters, she conducted detailed tests and detailed records of the patients' daily medication and other conditions. Unexpectedly, after some people took the medicine, their faces began to turn red and purple. The villagers were frightened, and some patients refused to take the medicine and even threw the medicine into the water. Li Huanying began to work door to door again, patting her chest to assure all the villagers: "As long as you insist on taking the medicine, these symptoms will disappear. I come here every year, and if it doesn't work, I will find new medicine!"

Six months, one year, two years, five years... all the lumps on the patients who took the medicine disappeared, and the numb skin began to feel. After several years of treatment, all leprosy patients in Mengla County were cured, and several villages were completely free from the shadow of leprosy. Nanxing Village was renamed "Mannanxing", which means "new life" in Dai language. On the day of the Water Splashing Festival in 1990, Li Huanying and the villagers danced the Dai dance together.

Today, the Mannanxing Village is full of beautiful Dai buildings, the village is clean and tidy, and there are birds singing and flowers blooming everywhere. The villagers have bright smiles on their faces. Talking about their happy life today, the villagers said: "Leprosy turned us from human beings into ghosts, and it was Mother Li who turned us from ghosts back to human beings. She gave us leprosy patients a second life."

"If there is an afterlife"

For the cause of leprosy prevention and treatment in my country, Li Huanying has been running around in remote and impoverished areas of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces for a long time. She has left her footprints in almost every village with leprosy patients in 7 prefectures and 59 counties. On the way to the leprosy area, Li Huanying was in danger 4 times due to the high mountains and rugged roads: 2 car overturns and 2 boat overturns. In 1989, on the way to Xichang, Sichuan, Li Huanying's car suddenly rolled over and fell into a ravine more than ten meters deep when crossing the snow-capped mountains. When Li Huanying woke up, she saw a large area of ​​bright red blood on the snow. That time, her clavicle and 3 ribs were fractured on both sides, and 7 stitches were sewn on the head injury. People advised her to rest well, but she continued to work with thick bandages and plaster.

With the joint efforts of Li Huanying and other leprosy prevention and treatment workers, in just a few years, leprosy, which had been rampant for thousands of years, became a controllable and curable common disease. The number of leprosy patients in the country dropped from 110,000 to less than 10,000, and the annual relapse rate was only 0.03%, far below the WHO standard of 1%. In 1996, Li Huanying took the lead in launching a special action plan to eliminate leprosy in China, and for the first time proposed a model combining vertical leprosy prevention and treatment with a grassroots prevention and treatment network, which was called "the best treatment action in the world" and achieved early detection and treatment of leprosy. In 1999, 98.6% of counties (cities) in the country had eliminated leprosy, and short-term combined chemotherapy was completely successful, making outstanding contributions to leprosy prevention and treatment in my country and even the world.

During her decades of medical career, Li Huanying's achievements in leprosy prevention and treatment have won high praise from domestic and foreign academic circles. She has been appointed as a member of the World Health Organization's Leprosy Expert Committee and the chairman and vice chairman of several international leprosy conferences. She has also won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, the National May 1st Labor Medal, and honors such as "National Medical Ethics Model" and "Model of the Times".

In September 2016, 95-year-old Li Huanying submitted an application to join the party organization. "Joining the party is like doing research, both are the pursuit of truth. I always felt that I was not good enough and not qualified, but now I think I should be qualified." In December of the same year, Li Huanying solemnly swore under the party flag and became a member of the Communist Party of China. On August 17, 2021, on his 100th birthday, Li Huanying said with deep affection: "If there is another life, I will return to my motherland and serve the Chinese people with what I have learned in my life."

The original intention can reflect the extraordinary character, and the passion can withstand the long years. On November 25, 2022, Li Huanying passed away in Beijing at the age of 101. She left all her tenderness and strength to the people of her beloved motherland, and devoted her life's energy to the prevention and treatment of leprosy and research until the last day of her life.