More than 40 years ago, trachoma suddenly became widespread in China, and many people could not see clearly two weeks after their eyes became red and itchy.
The importance of the eyes to us is self-evident, and the medical experts of the time were racing against time to ** this infectious disease, but with little success.
It wasn't until Tang Feifan personally inoculated the pathogen and "tested the virus himself".Remarkable achievements have been made to advance the research process of trachoma disease.
Of course, this is only part of his medical milestones, which he is still developingVaccinia vaccine, plague vaccineand other aspects have made great contributions.
However, his popularity in China is relatively low today.
So, what exactly has he done?
Tang Feifan was born in 1897 in Liling, Hunan.
His ancestors were from a noble family, and although he had fallen into the middle of his father's generation, he was able to learn a lot by attending private schools.
Living in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, in an era of humiliation, poverty, and poor people's lives, he saw and experienced too many superstitions that harmed people, life and death, and his future career plan was to study medicine to save the Chinese.
Tang Feifan originally studied at Hunan Provincial Class A Industrial School, but he didn't think he was interested in studying engineering.
So, when Xiangya Medical College was established in 1914, he did not hesitate to transfer here.
He was very poor at English, but he studied very hard.
At that time, I was able to enter medical school because I was exempted from the English test.
However, he can't read foreign literature when studying medicine, and he also wants to keep up with the progress of foreign teachers as soon as possible.
So, every day, he held a copy of the "Merriam-Webster English Dictionary" in his hand to read and recite, and the pages were rotten.
Because he was too focused on learning English, when he came home from vacation, he also saw his brother called "father", which made everyone laugh for a long time.
The effect of his learning is also very remarkable, he can read English literature, listen to diplomatic classes, and write English** without barriers.
In 1921, after years of hard study, he graduated with a doctorate, which was at that timeXiangya Medical CollegeThe best of the best.
Four years later, because he was too good, he got the opportunity to study at Harvard.
The process of studying medicine here allowed him to master more subtle and professional medical skills.
As he finished, his mentors at Harvard University wanted him to stay.
However, the dean of the medical school of ** university in China also wrote a letter, hoping that he could return to China.
On the one hand, the United States, which has a bright future, and on the other hand, China, which was born and raised.
This is a difficult choice for some peopleBut Tang Feifan's original purpose of studying medicine was to save the Chinese.
Therefore, he came back without the slightest hesitation, even though the treatment and scientific research conditions here are much worse than those in the United States.
1929 yearTang Feifan, an associate professor at Shanghai ** University, built his own virus laboratory from scratch.
Using the simplest filtering equipment, he and his friends proved that viruses can filter a variety of characteristics.
In addition, they invented a microporous membrane with the function of detecting the size of the virus.
In 1932, while he was working on trachoma, a Japanese expert announced that he had found itThe causative agent of trachoma.
At that time, many international experts believed this man's statement and praised him to the sky.
However, when Tang Feifan repeated the Japanese expert's experiment, he found that the pathogen of trachoma could not be isolated by that method.
After he told him about his experiments, no one believed him.
However, through a series of data, he perfectly slapped the Japanese scholar in the face.
He is only 1.6 meters tall, but every time he talks to others, he does not tilt his neck.
He always straightened up, silently took a few steps away from someone taller than him, and then started talking about things.
In 1938, he was ordered to come to the epidemic prevention department in Changsha.
Because he likes to be clean, and often wears foreign suits and leather shoes, he is very strict with his work, and severely reprimands those who make mistakes, so some people secretly call him ""."Sir".
"Master" is naturally not a good title, but everyone's sarcasm for him.
The then Director of Health, Ngan Fuqing, had a teacher-student relationship with him, and he had a son-in-law and father-in-law relationship with Home Minister Ho Kim.
Based on his identity, everyone suspected that he came in through the back door and relied on connections.
He also knew the gossip, but he didn't care at all.
After all, not to mention his academic qualifications, even his status as a professor at the medical school of ** university at that time has already proved that he is qualified to come here.
During the war, if penicillin can be used to reduce inflammation, the chance of this increase is a lot, so penicillin is a hot seller.
In 1943, he led everyone to use simple equipment such as glass factories and boilers to produce penicillin, and in order to prevent boilers**, he slept soundly every night.
Soon after, during the cowpox epidemic,He also led the workers to produce 100,000 copies of the cowpox vaccine and send it to the liberated areas.
In 1950, he took his students to research a vaccine against the plague.
In order to prevent some countries from starting a war against the virus, he also launched the development of a yellow fever vaccine.
The management of biological products is not standardized, which can contaminate drugs at least and cause major safety hazards at worst.
As a result, he wrote the first corresponding verification regulations in China.
In 1954, with the help of his assistants, he managed to isolate and name Chlamydia trachomatis.
At this point, he is well known around the world, and the microbiology community fully recognizes his research results.
Four years later, in order to obtain more clinical information and document, he actually infected the trachoma virus into his eye.
For 40 days, he paid full attention to the changes in the trachoma virus infection and did not carry out any **.
The clinical data he wrote down also provided strong support for trachoma.
Later, he worked on vaccines for measles and polio.
It is a pity that he committed suicide in 1958, otherwise, his contribution would definitely not have been there.
Similar to him,and "Grandpa Sugar Pill" Gu Fangzhou, also do not hesitate to use their bodies to conduct scientific research experiments.
Polio once left many families grief-stricken, and Gu Fangzhou went to the Soviet Union to study for a vaccine.
However, he felt that the cost of the Soviet Union's dead vaccine was too high, and China's national conditions at that time were not suitable for this vaccine.
At that time, there was international controversy about the use of live vaccines, and the improved live vaccine he developed was no problem in monkeys, but more clinical data was needed to use it in humans.
To do this, he drank the live vaccine himself, and many of his colleagues volunteered to drink the live vaccine.
After a period of observation, the safety of the vaccine has been proven, however this is only a proof that it can be used in adults.
In order to prove that it can be used by young children, he even let his son, who is less than a year old, drink a live vaccine.
The disease carries the risk of lifelong paralysis, but he still resolutely does so.
Fortunately, his son did not get sick, and the children in China also ate the "sugar pill".
Such a person who dares to "test drugs by himself" is really admirable.