Wu Lien-Teh: Malaysia's little-known plague virus fighter

Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society chairman Datuk Dr Anwar Fazal (second from left) looking at Dr Wu's bust which is located in front of the Penang Institute on Brown Road. – ASRI ABDUL GHANI/The Star

HIS name does not exist in our school history books and he has never been accorded the recognition that he truly deserves – and what's more, he was a Malaysian.

In the fall of 1910, a pneumonic plague which originated in Russian Siberia, broke out in Harbin, the north eastern region of China. The epidemic spread so quickly that within four months, it claimed 60,000 lives.