Chinese doctor who first warned about coronavirus outbreak dies
Beijing, Feb 6: Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, one of the eight whistle-blowers who warned other medics of the coronavirus outbreak but were reprimanded by the police, died of the epidemic on Thursday, official media reported.
Li, a 34-year-old doctor who tried to warn other medics of the epidemic, died of coronavirus on Thursday in Wuhan, the state-run Global Times reported.
He was the first to report about the virus way back in December last year when it first emerged in Wuhan, the provincial capital of China's central Hubei province.
He dropped a bombshell in his medical school alumni group on the popular Chinese messaging app WeChat that seven patients from a local seafood market had been diagnosed with a SARS-like illness and quarantined in his hospital.
Li explained that, according to a test he had seen, the illness was a coronavirus a large family of viruses that includes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which led to 800 death in China and the world in 2003.
Li told his friends to warn their loved ones privately. But within hours screenshots of his messages had gone viral - without his name being blurred.
"When I saw them circulating online, I realised that it was out of my control and I would probably be punished," Li was quoted as saying CNN recently.
Soon after he posted the message, Li was accused of rumour-mongering by the Wuhan police.
He was one of several medics targeted by the police for trying to blow the whistle on the deadly virus in the early weeks of the outbreak.
Overall 564 people have died in China due to the virus and 28,018 confirmed cases have been reported from 31 provincial-level regions, the National Health Commission reported on Thursday.
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Daycare chemotherapy centres to be set up in district hospitals, announces Dr. Sharanaparakash Patil
Belagavi: Medical Education Minister Dr. Sharanaparakash Rudrappa Patil on Tuesday said the State government plans to establish day-care chemotherapy centres in all district hospitals across Karnataka to make cancer treatment more accessible.
Replying to a question raised by BJP MLC M.P. Kushalappa during the Question Hour in the Legislative Council, the minister said it was not feasible for cancer patients from various districts to travel repeatedly to Kidwai Memorial Institute in Bengaluru. To address this issue, the government is taking steps to establish cancer care centers in other districts in collaboration with the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.
Providing details of cancer treatment at Kidwai, Dr. Patil said that over the past three years, 41,512 cancer patients have received treatment at the institute. Treatment included surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of these, depending on the type and stage of cancer.
Between 2022 and 2024, a total of 12,781 patients underwent surgery, 14,423 patients received radiation therapy, and over 28,370 patients were administered chemotherapy, he said.
The minister further noted that more than 110 patients were provided bone marrow transplants, an otherwise expensive procedure, free of cost at the institute during the same period.
The proposed day-care chemotherapy centers, he said, would significantly reduce the burden on patients and improve access to timely cancer treatment at the district level.
