Happy Chinese New Year! As the historic and economic Asian giant celebrates the Year of the Pig, it's important to acknowledge the ingenious and valuable contributions China has contributed to the medical universe. Let's take a look at the top five medical innovations based out of mainland China.
1. Artemisine
The global malaria epidemic has been drastically reduced throughout the years thanks to a drug isolated from Artemisia annua. Artemisine reduces the number of Plasmodium parasites in the patients with malaria³. With great opportunity comes great resistance, however. And I mean that literally: there are many Artemisine-resistant mosquitoes out there that do not respond to Artemisine.
2. Arsenic Trioxide
Arsenic Trioxide is an anti-neoplastic, meaning that it's a medication used to interfere with the growth of cancer cells. It's used to treat a cancer of the blood and bone marrow: acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)³.
3. Limb Re-plantation
Aye mate, need a hand? Chen Zhongwei published the first case of surgical reattachment of a limb in 1964. Amusingly, the medical community has put forth a debate if Zhongwei really deserves this credit. Dr. Ronald Malt, an American surgeon, has been said to perform a limb reattachment in 1962---but didn't publish his case until a few years later¹. In the world we live in today, it's fitting that American versus Chinese accomplishments are rivaled in this sense as well.
4. The Face Mask's Role in Preventing the Plague
Dr. Wu Lien Teh, a Cambridge-trained physician, found that the pneumonic plague could be transmitted through human breath and sputum². This came at a surprise to just about the entire medical community. This discovery wasn't taken seriously until after one of Dr. Teh's more vocal opponents died from the plague himself, ironically from treating plague patients without wearing a face mask. Dr. Teh then spearheaded the International Plague Conference in 1911, where he coordinated a global response with renowned epidemiologists and scientists from 11 other countries.
5. Paper making
From EKGs to medical records, healthcare would be incredibly frustrating if it wasn't for paper. The reliance on paper is slowly fizzling out though: electronic medical records are the future.
Sources:
¹Fan, Ka-wai. (2018). Ronald Malt or Chen Zhongwei: Who performed the first surgical replantation?. Journal of Medical Biography. 096777201877396. 10.1177/0967772018773968.
²Lien-Teh Wu. Plague Fighter: the autobiography of a modern Chinese Physician. Penang: Areca Books; 2014.
³Wáng, Yì-Xiáng J and Fan Xiao. “Top five medical innovations in China mainland since Xinhai revolution [1911]: results of AME survey-002” Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery vol. 5,3 (2015): 453-66.
Ezra Guttmann is a medical student at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. Views in his blog are of his own. There is no medical advice on this website.
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