China’s savior: In order to develop a vaccine, he used his own children to experiment and spent more than 40 years to eradicate polio. Who is it?

He lost his father when he was young and was raised by his mother, determined to study medicine and save lives. He was ordered to do so at a critical moment, and after many years of painstaking research on polio, he finally achieved success. He was affectionately called "Grandpa Sugar Pill" by everyone. He fell ill in 2019 but silently. He is the savior of hundreds of millions of Chinese people. We all owe him a "thank you".

A young man determined to study medicine

Gu Fangzhou was born in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province in 1926. He originally came from a wealthy and well-off family and could live a comfortable life. His father, Gu Guoguang, worked in the customs. When Gu Fangzhou was 4 years old, his father unfortunately contracted kala-azar. However, it was a backward era, and his father died soon after treatment failed.

At this time, the only person left in the Gu family was Gu Fangzhou’s mother with four children and a younger brother. The Gu family gradually fell into decline, and little Gu Fangzhou lived a very difficult life. Fortunately, their mother did not abandon them, but was strong-willed and prepared to learn a trade to support the family. She first went to primary school to work as a teacher, and then was admitted to Guangji Midwifery Vocational School. After completing her studies, she went to Tianjin to work as a midwife. From then on, she embarked on a path that was rare for a professional woman at that time.

Gu Fangzhou was greatly influenced by his mother. His kind character and hard-working spirit all depended on his mother's teachings. His mother also taught him that he must be a useful person to society. After elementary school, Gu Fangzhou followed his eldest brother to study in Hebei, where he developed his ability to live independently. After junior high school, he was admitted to a school affiliated to Yenching University, hoping to study medicine in Yenching in the future. But unfortunately, the war broke out half a year later, and the brothers had no choice but to return to Tianjin, but Tianjin also fell soon after.

After graduating from high school in 1944, he was admitted to Peking University Medical School to study medicine. Because of the situation at that time, he suffered a huge impact mentally and nationally. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1948 and determined to serve the people. He was about to graduate in 1950 and was faced with the problem of graduation allocation. With Gu Fangzhou's medical talent, he could have been a good surgeon, but he didn't think so. He felt that being an ordinary doctor could certainly cure diseases and save lives, but the poor health conditions in New China at that time required more human resources to improve.

At that time, the People's Republic of China had just been founded, and people generally had no concept of public health. Infectious diseases were widely spread, and the maternal and child health situation was severe. He resolutely devoted himself to public health and worked at the Dalian Institute of Health. In 1951, he was sent to the Soviet Union to study virology. After returning to China, he served as deputy director of the Ministry of Health's Encephalitis City. In 1957, he was ordered to start researching poliomyelitis when he was in danger, which started a period of his life where he was not willing to let go of polio.

"Grandpa Sugar Pill" Gu Fangzhou

Polio, also known as poliomyelitis, mostly affects children between 1 and 6 years old. The polio virus can invade the motor cells of the human central nervous system, leaving some patients with lifelong disabilities, difficulty walking, and even death. What's more serious is that it can cause large-scale outbreaks like the flu.

The first report of poliomyelitis in my country was in 1930. There were several reports later, but they were all scattered clinical cases. The first polio epidemic occurred in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province in 1953. At that time, there were as many as 2,607 polio cases, with a large number of affected people and a high fatality rate. When Gu Fangzhou returned to China from the Soviet Union, the epidemic was breaking out on a large scale, appearing alternately across the country. However, this disease was very unfamiliar to China, and once it broke out, it could not be cured.

In 1959, the Ministry of Health decided to send four people including Gu Fangzhou and Dong Dexiang to the Soviet Union to inspect the production process of the inactivated polio vaccine. The Soviet side did not take them to see polio research. Soon after, they also discovered that the Soviet polio vaccine was very harmful and could cause adverse consequences.

They still had to develop their own vaccines, especially dead vaccines that were too harmful. They decided to study available live vaccines that they could produce. After returning to China, they came to Kunming, Yunnan together and established a biological research institute to develop live vaccines for polio. The conditions were very difficult at that time, and they even built the vaccine production line bit by bit, but under these conditions, they still developed the vaccine.

But the vaccine is not finished yet, there are still many problems that need to be solved. The first thing to bear the brunt is human experimentation. This vaccine has been tested on adults and is not harmful. However, the onset of poliomyelitis mainly occurs in childhood, and large-scale experiments on children are needed for real promotion.

But this is very dangerous and can cause adverse reactions or even life-threatening effects. How many parents are willing to let their children take this risk? At this time, Gu Fangzhou's child was still in his infancy, so he took the risk to use it on his own child. After a few weeks, there were no adverse reactions. He began to trial it with the experimenters, and finally used it on the children.

What a strong fearless spirit! Later, with their persistence, the vaccine gradually became successful. This was the world's first live polio vaccine.

This live vaccine could successfully block the poliovirus, but the effect was not long enough. Later, they cooperated with a pharmaceutical company in Shanghai to develop a sugar pill form, which is the sugar pill we all took when we were children. Gu Fangzhou is also affectionately known as "Grandpa Sugar Pill".

Only do one thing in life

Although the vaccine has been prepared, the epidemic has not disappeared. In 1988, the Ministry of Health issued a plan to eradicate polio. From then on, Gu Fangzhou The long road to eradicating polio began. Poliomyelitis is occurring one after another in various parts of the country, and the people's health concept is insufficient. The road to eradicating polio is long and arduous. Beginning in 1988, Gu Fangzhou traveled across the country and actively participated in local polio eradication work inspection and verification committee meetings.

It was not until 2000, 12 years later, that the country completely eliminated polio. At the reporting ceremony, he solemnly signed his name and said, "I am very happy to participate in this event today." I am very excited about the ceremony.” The eradication of polio is another great feat of mankind after the eradication of smallpox. We should remember this moment. In order to achieve this goal, Gu Fangzhou and his companions spent more than forty years. What an arduous and long road it was!

The death of Gu Fangzhou in 2019 did not cause a huge sensation except in the medical community. This is not consistent with his achievements, but it is like his own personality, which is approachable, rigorous in scholarship and willing to help others. This man has passed away, but his story is still circulating in the world. Although he may not care, we still want to say "thank you" to him.