For the sake of his children, he drank 100 doses of vaccine

In the summer of 1955, a strange disease appeared in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. 1,680 people in the city were suddenly paralyzed and 466 people died, most of them children.

Those who managed to survive had their bodies turned into twisted dead branches due to varying degrees of infection.

Source: Documentary "The People's Doctor"

They may be dependent on wheelchairs and crutches for the rest of their lives.

Image source: Documentary "Everyone" Gu Fangzhou - Mission Calls

Or they may be laughed at for their strange walking posture, or even lose their breathing function and suffocate to death.

Source: Documentary "The People's Doctor"

Doctors at the time only knew that this was an infectious disease called poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio. The virus is mainly excreted in the feces of infected people and spread through contaminated water, food and daily necessities. The polio virus likes to attack our nervous system, especially the motor nerves. When the motor nerves are damaged, the parts they control will lose their motor function, further developing into muscle atrophy, bone deformation and paralysis.

Subsequently, epidemics also occurred in Qingdao, Shanghai, Jining, etc. At the peak, the number of confirmed cases nationwide reached 45,000 in one year.

In Nanning, where the disease was most severe at the time, during the hottest days of July and August, parents were so frightened that they closed their doors and windows and did not dare to let their children go out.

A group of "backpackers" has emerged in major cities - parents carry their disabled children on a cloth back, along with dry food, and go to various major hospitals to seek medical treatment.

Image source: Bilibili video "A Brief History of Genius - Gu Fangzhou"

A desperate mother heard that there was an expert in polio in Beijing named Gu Fangzuo, so she came to find him with her child on her back.

01

He graduated from Peking University Medical School

“Disdain” to be a surgeon

That year, Gu Fangzuo was 29 years old.

He had studied virology in the Soviet Union for four years, but when faced with the mother who had rushed over from another place and had been waiting for him in the corridor with her baby for a day, he could only say:

"Comrade, I'm sorry, this disease cannot be cured at present."

He only met this child once, but he remembered him for a lifetime.

More than 50 years later, he still choked up when he talked about this.

Image source: Documentary "Everyone" Gu Fangzhou - Mission Calls

In 1950, 24-year-old Gu Fangzuo graduated from Peking University Medical School. After graduation, he did not become a doctor like other classmates, but chose public health.

Yes, it’s my colleagues from Shenzhen CDC.

The sanitary conditions of the entire society at that time were appalling:

The miners slept with excrement, had no money to treat their illnesses, and were thrown into mass graves when they died;

Women have no conditions, no knowledge, and no doctors to give birth, and the infant mortality rate is as high as 170‰-200‰;

The well and the toilet were built together, and once the toilet was blocked, the feces would flow all over the street. In the same river, some people fetched water, some washed clothes, and some dumped feces...

Every year, more than 6 million people die in vain due to this. Various infectious diseases such as plague, smallpox, and the polio just mentioned are "prevalent every year and kill people every year." The average life expectancy in rural areas is only 33 years.

Doctors were well paid and had a high social status at that time. When he was in college, Gu Fangzhou was famous for his dexterity and everyone thought he was suitable for surgery.

But he said:

"A surgeon can only operate on a few patients in his lifetime. Public health is so important. If done well, it can save a lot of people!"

After graduation, he went to Dalian Health Center and began to study viruses.

02

15 USD per person?

We really can't afford this vaccine

Gu Fangzuo was lucky. After working for a year, he was sent to the Soviet Union to study virology.

Four years passed since I left.

The photo he sent to his wife from the Soviet Union read:

"I give you my dear Yiwan, your ark."

Source: "One Life, One Thing, Gu Fangzhou's Oral History"

When I came back, I encountered the epidemic mentioned at the beginning - an outbreak of polio in Nantong, Jiangsu.

Seeing that tens of thousands of children become disabled due to diseases every year, if the situation is not controlled, I am afraid that half of China will become crippled... Gu Fangzhou was anxious.

There is no cure for polio, the only solution is a vaccine.

In 1959, the Ministry of Health again sent Gu Fangzuo and four others to the Soviet Union to investigate polio vaccines.

The four-member group that just arrived in Moscow, Gu Fangzhou is the first from the left in the back row

Source: "One Life, One Thing, Gu Fangzhou's Oral History"

But when they arrived in Moscow, they found that the United States and the Soviet Union were arguing.

At that time, there were two vaccines in the world, and everyone was arguing about which one to use:

Dead vaccine: used in the United States, safe, but requires three injections, expensive;

Live vaccine: It is cheap, but a new type, and few people have used it. It is equivalent to letting people swallow the virus alive, and it can cause disability if you are not careful.

Gu Fangzhou certainly knows that inactivated vaccines are good. But it costs $15 per child, and the country simply cannot afford universal vaccination.

Live vaccines, though seemingly dangerous, are China’s only hope.

At that time, the United States and the Soviet Union were unwilling to disclose the experimental data. In a critical situation, he decided to take 3,000 doses of live vaccine sent by his mentor back to China.

Don't ask others, rely on yourself.

In September 1959, a plane took off from Moscow and flew to China. The 33-year-old Gu Fangzuo carefully guarded his suitcase, which contained the hopes of all Chinese children.

03

He drank 100 doses of vaccine in one night

After the first batch of live vaccines were produced and passed animal trials, they still needed human trials.

Gu Fangzuo first drank 100 doses of vaccine solution himself, and he was fine.

But most polio patients are children, and just because adults are fine after drinking the medicine doesn’t mean the children will be fine.

He made another difficult decision and gave it to his son.

Without telling his wife who was on a business trip, he fed the vaccine to his son Xiaodong, who was less than one year old.

Gu Fangzhou holds his son Xiaodong in his arms

Source: Documentary "The People's Doctor"

Looking back now, Mr. Gu said he was indeed a little scared. He knew very well that if the experiment failed, the child would either be paralyzed or die.

But he said:

"It doesn't make sense for your own children not to eat it and for other children to eat it."

The children of five or six colleagues in the lab also participated in the experiment. During that period, the first thing everyone said when they met was:

"How are your children?".

Image source: Documentary "National Memory: Fighting the Epidemic" - 05 Eradication of Polio

His wife Li Yiwan also felt that her husband was a little strange. He was usually too busy to take care of the children, so why did he keep asking about his son recently?

Interview video of Gu Fangzhou's wife Li Yiwan

Image source: Documentary "National Memory: Fighting the Epidemic" - 05 Eradication of Polio

Fortunately, the testing period ended and the children were safe and sound.

04

A laboratory was dug out from a barren mountain

The vaccine is ready to use, but another problem arose during production: each batch of vaccine has to be tested on monkeys, and it is only considered passed if the monkeys are safe.

There aren't enough monkeys in Beijing, what should we do? Everyone came up with a solution: go to Kunming! There are plenty of monkeys there.

But apart from monkeys, there is really nothing else you need in Kunming.

34-year-old Gu Fangzuo brought a group of colleagues to a cave more than 300 meters above the city center opposite Dianchi Lake.

It is really hard to imagine that a laboratory that later saved the whole of China was actually dug out in a cave by a group of scientists.

Source: "One Life, One Thing, Gu Fangzhou's Oral History"

No one was willing to come to such a miserable place, so he took the lead and moved his entire family here.

Gu Fangzhou carried 200 kilograms of cement and walked away;

The one in the front row is Gu Fangzhou.

Source: "One Life, One Thing, Gu Fangzhou's Oral History"

There was no ice storage in the laboratory, so everyone produced the vaccine in the middle of the night when the temperature was lowest, and then carried the vaccine down the mountain to store it overnight;

Now a road has been built on the mountain.

It is hard to imagine how people walked back and forth every day on cold winter nights.

Image source: Shining Days

The conditions were not good at that time. The laboratory was disinfected by ultraviolet light and formalin fumigation. People working inside had tears streaming down their faces due to pain in their eyes, and their whole bodies were soaked. They had to hold back their coughs for fear that the bacteria would contaminate the vaccines.

Gu Fangzuo and his colleagues have dedicated almost three generations to making vaccines.

His children all grew up in the mountains, did not receive much education, and his mother also died in the mountains, which became his lifelong regrets.

However, with such efforts and sacrifices, tens of millions of polio vaccines were continuously produced from this valley and shipped to all parts of the motherland over the years.

Image source: Documentary "National Memory: Fighting the Epidemic" - 05 Eradication of Polio

Subsequently, polio vaccine was promoted in many cities with great success.

05

This sugar

Saved 110,000 lives

But to completely eradicate polio, the vaccine must be promoted nationwide.

During the promotion process, Gu Fangzhou discovered two problems:

In many rural areas, it is not convenient to transport and store frozen food;

The polio vaccine needs to be taken orally and tastes strange. The children cry every time they take it.

So he came up with an idea: he rolled the vaccine into sugar pills and put them in a wide-mouthed thermos.

No matter where in the world, the epidemic prevention personnel can deliver it.

Image source: Documentary "Everyone" Gu Fangzhou - Mission Calls

In the past, children had to be coaxed and tricked into taking vaccines. After the vaccine was replaced with sugar pills, he received a letter. The head of an epidemic prevention station said that the child secretly ate more than a dozen pills at once, and she was so anxious that she wrote letters everywhere.

Fortunately, nothing happened, but when Mr. Gu thought about it more than 50 years later, he still couldn't stop smiling.

Image source: Documentary "Everyone" Gu Fangzhou - Mission Calls

In 1994, China discovered the last case of polio caused by a local virus.

The sugar pill vaccine invented by Gu Fangzuo has prevented paralysis of at least 1.5 million people and the deaths of 110,000 people.

In 2000, the World Health Organization officially announced that China had become a polio-free country, and 74-year-old Gu Fangzuo signed on behalf of China.

Image source: Documentary "National Memory: Fighting the Epidemic" - 05 Eradication of Polio

After many years of separation, he and his colleagues reunited in Kunming.

Those young people who used to dig caves and catch monkeys together are now white-haired grandparents.

Image source: Documentary "Everyone" Gu Fangzhou - Mission Calls

At the banquet, he led everyone in reciting the famous words of Pavel Korchagin that they used to recite in the mountains:

After reading it, he asked everyone:

"Comrades, is it worthwhile for us to dedicate our lives to eradicating polio?"

A group of elderly people were as happy as children, raising their hands and cheering loudly, saying:

“It’s worth it!”

Colleague Zhao Mei recalls the past. Source: TV program "Shining Names"

On January 2, 2019, 92-year-old Gu Fangzuo passed away suddenly.

In the last moments of his life, he could no longer open his eyes, but just held everyone's hands tightly and left his last words:

"I have done one thing in my life that is worth...worth..., children, grow up quickly and serve the motherland..."

A few days ago, I read a passage in a book:

Looking back on Mr. Gu’s life, there were long years of learning, tedious research, as well as his sincerity towards his ideals and compassion for all living beings.

Use mediocrity to fight against transience, and use smallness to create greatness.

His life shows us what a worthwhile life is.

Source: Shenzhen Disease Control (ID: szcdcepi)

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