The Nobel Foundation awards the annual Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine to three individuals. Their outstanding discoveries are looked upon as a cure to benefit mankind. One of this year’s Nobel Prize recipients is Youyou Tu. Tu is a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist, medical scientist, and educator that found the cure for malaria. Her past research has won awards on her hopes to attend the Chinese Academy of Science. According to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, malaria is a parasitic disease caused by a mosquito bite. Malaria was not known to have a cure. The symptoms are chills, fever and sweating. It eventually leads into death.
An interviewer from the New York Times asked Tu how she started. In reply, Tu explained China’s connection to North Vietnam when it was infected with Malaria. “They had an epidemic of malaria. Soldiers’ lives lost to malaria were two to three times those lost in combat. The malaria parasite had developed resistance to all drugs.” (Jane Perlez, 2015) In 1969, the military hospital could not help the infected soldiers. Because of the Cultural Revolution and epidemic, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai named Tu head of the research. She then began working to find a cure. Tu says she was “happy to have something to do amid all the chaos” (Jane Perez, 2015).
Her team and she found and analyzed books about Chinese medicines. They believe this will lead them to find the cure for malaria. They found a book called The Manual of Clinical Practice and Emergency Remedies by Ge Hong of the East Dynasty. The author mentioned sweet wormwood, artemisia, is used to cure malaria. Tu’s biggest worry was testing the artemisinin on humans; even though, the medicine was safe on mice and monkeys. Her and her team took the artemisinin to conclude that it was safe. Many scientist would have payed someone to partake their research, but Tu felt it was her responsibility to test it.
According to The New York Times, many people question Tu’s discovery because she does not have much foreign training and no doctoral degree (Jane Perlez, 2015). Others think her discovery of artemisinin is not an individual discovery because it was kept secret [523] during the Vietnam War. In regards of that, Tu says she led the team to the discovery of artemisinin. Artemisinin is a colorless, chemical compound (C15H22O5) that forms free radicals to kill cells. Professors from the University of Washington mentions artemisinin to also treat cancer (Taylor & Francis Online).
Tu’s discovery saved many lives and (globally) lowered the mortality rate by 60% (who.int). Even though she was denied at the Chinese Academy of Science, she truly got the best award of all: winning a Nobel Prize for curing others. Before the research, malaria has always been an epidemic that has yet to be solved. Artemisinin has also been used to treat cancer and in hopes to help other disease. Youyou Tu’s discovery is encouraging for many young pharmacist, wanting to better mankind.
