Army
doctor who publicized Sars disease died..!?
A Chinese
army doctor who was put under
house arrest for talking about Sars has succumbed to pneumonia. Chinese
army doctor Jiang Yanyang died of
pneumonia at the age of 91 in Beijing, according to human rights activist Hu Jia. This has been confirmed by South
china Morning Post. When the Sars outbreak broke out in 2003, Jiang released the full details. He was later placed under
house arrest in response to his politically motivated speeches. In
china,
news of Jiang's death and even his name were censored. Even in the last days of his life, he continued to be under surveillance as a prominent political figure. He served as the chief surgeon of the People's Liberation
army of
china and was a
doctor at a hospital in Beijing. At that time, student-led pro-democracy protests took place. The
army struggled to contain them. In this, thousands of
people died in the protest at Tiananmen Square. At that time, he was working as a treatment provider for soldiers.
During the SARS outbreak in 2003, the ruling Communist
party worked to keep information about the outbreak under wraps. However, Jiang wrote an 800-word letter. It said the number of SARS cases was higher than the number announced by China's
health minister. CCTV, the Chinese state channel. and e-mailed these
letters to the Phoenix Channel in Hong Kong. But they avoided it. Later, the
letter was leaked to the Western media. As a result, the true spread of the disease became known and the Chinese authorities tried to cover it up. In that
letter, the UN for Finland. It also included information about the death of the employee and the famous
doctor Zhang Nanshan.
This led to the government's crackdown and the resignation of the
health minister and the mayor of Beijing. While the spread of Sars had already started in other countries, information from a
letter led to changes in
china, and strict control measures was implemented to control the spread of the disease. 774
people died of Sars disease which affected more than 8 thousand
people in 29 countries and territories. Acting without thought of consequences, his
letter saved many lives.
Hu said Jiang is a public figure who puts the patient first. However, after Jiang retired as a major general, he said he did not get permission from the Ministry of Defense to be interviewed. In
china, Jiang and his
wife were placed under
house arrest in 2004. The
philippines honored him with the Magsaysay Award. However, his daughter went and got it. It is worth noting that even when the corona epidemic was detected in
china at the end of
2019 and became known to the world, many doctors and scientists experienced the same thing as Jiang.