For most people, 60 is the age for retirement. But at 58, Doctor
Li Huanying started on a new career path - to fight leprosy.
Now 86, Li has helped cure more than 10,000 leprosy patients and
is still working full time on leprosy control at the Beijing
Tropical Medicine Research Institute.?
?
Li Huanying visits a
leprosy patient in Wangdu, Hebei Province, in January.
Her goal is to eliminate the disease from the country, which has
about 6,000 patients.
"We have to detect and treat leprosy early so that our next
generation will not be disabled and crippled," said Li, sitting on
her chair in a 5-sq-m office. On her desk were copies of China
Daily and piles of English-language research
papers.????
A bacteriology and public health graduate from the Johns Hopkins
University in the United States, Li was the first Chinese woman to
work as a technical expert for the World Health Organization (WHO)
in Indonesia and Myanmar in the 1950s.
In 1959, she came back to China where she worked at the Academy
of Medical Sciences in Beijing.
In 1978, when the WHO set the goal of controlling six main
tropical diseases, including leprosy, worldwide, the Beijing
Tropical Medicine Research Institute appointed her to work on
leprosy.
"I had only six months of experience of dealing with leprosy
during the 'cultural revolution (1966-76)'," said Li, a petite
woman with silvery hair. "But I had the medical background and am a
fast learner."
She introduced the new WHO regimen multi-drug therapy - a free
and simple yet highly effective cure.
Her efforts have played a big part in reducing the annual
average number of new leprosy patients to 1,500 from about 2,000
before 1998.
Leprosy is a disease of the less advantaged and about half the
patients live in the mountainous regions in southwest China.
When Li shook hands with patients at a leprosy village in Yunnan
Province, it shocked local officials and villagers.
On another occasion, she picked up a patient's shoes and put her
hands inside.
"Patients often feel numb in their hands or feet, and can easily
pick up skin injuries.
"I wanted to see if there were any nails or sand in the
shoes."
In addition to medical treatment, elimination of discrimination
and fear is vital, she said. "Fear comes from superstition, lack of
education and lack of sympathy."
In rural areas, a patient is often considered a person possessed
by ghosts and stigmatized.
"But I cannot understand why even some doctors shun leprosy
patients."
Li, who is single, leads a simple life. She cooks three meals a
day and favors vegetable salads. A domestic helper cleans her
apartment twice a week.
"My greatest joy is to make myself useful and tackle the
unsolved problems in leprosy control," she said.
Asking to comment on comparisons with Mother Teresa, Li gave a
modest smile: "I don't want to go to heaven nor hell. I am simply
doing my job."
(China Daily August 31, 2007))
