Roundup: Vietnam hails Chinese winner of 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Right after Tu Youyou became the first Chinese national to bag a Nobel prize in natural sciences, Vietnamese newspapers and magazines ran numerous articles about her devoted life and intensive research which were closely related to the Vietnam War.

Vietnam's leading daily newspaper Tien Phong (Pioneer) on Tuesday ran a long article titled The Person Who Lost all Teeth after Testing Medicine Receives Nobel Prize in Medicine.

The article's lead says, "Being tasked to find anti-malaria medicine in a secret project related to the Vietnam War, female Chinese scientist Tu Youyou used to test medicine so frequently that she lost all of her teeth. Yesterday, Tu and two scientists from Ireland and Japan were awarded the 2015 Nobel prize in medicine."

The Vietnamese article portrayed Tu as a devoted scientist who researched more than 640 kinds of medicinal plants listed in 2,000 therapies and conducted hundreds of studies to discover effective malaria therapies but all failed until her 191st attempt in April 1971.

The article also provided details of Tu's work related to the Vietnam War. In 1969, Chinese leader Mao Zedong kicked off a secret military project named "523" to make malaria medicine to assist the Vietnamese army in the war against the United States as well as to cope with rampant outbreaks of malaria in China's southern provinces. Tu was chosen to lead the project.

In 1971, based on an ancient text written 1,700 years ago on how to treat malaria with an extract from the sweet wormwood shrub with the scientific name of Artemisia annua (or "qinghaosu" in Chinese or "thanh hao hoa vang" in Vietnamese), Tu discovered a way to make useful quantities of the drug artemisinin, the article says.

Other Vietnamese media outlets also ran similar stories and news about Tu Youyou. The online version of Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper published an article saying, "With Malaria medicine from "thanh hao hoa vang" plant, first Chinese scientist wins Nobel Prize in Medicine."

Vietnamese science magazine Tia Sang (Ray of Light) published a long story titled 85-year-old Chinese Herbalist Shares Nobel Prize in Medicine, while the online version of local newspaper Phap Luat Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Law) carried an article entitled Chinese Shares 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Many Vietnamese readers said they found the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine very interesting. Nguyen Van Than, a war veteran who is residing in Ho Chi Minh City, told Xinhua on Tuesday that after reading news about the prize, he was surprised at the information about the secret project China implemented in 1969.

"I didn't know anything about the Chinese anti-malaria project, but after reading the news about Mrs. Tu, I respect her finding in 1971. Before 1968, we crossed the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the southern region, and many soldiers were infected with malaria in the jungle. Some of my comrades passed away after contracting malignant malaria," recalled the war veteran with a weather-beaten face.

His son named Nguyen Van Ti, who is working as an office clerk in the city, said, "Reading the news, I admire Mrs. Tu very much. First, she sacrificed her private life to wholeheartedly devote her whole life to science. Second, her finding has helped save many lives, at least in southern China, as reported."

According to the World Health Organization, increased political commitment and greater funding have averted more than four million malaria deaths since 2001, and 55 of the 97 countries and territories with ongoing malaria transmission are on track to meet the current target of reducing the incidence of malaria by 75 percent between 2000 and 2015. Despite dramatic declines in malaria cases and deaths since 2000, more than half a million lives are still lost to this preventable disease each year, the organization said.

A representative from the Information Technology Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Health told Xinhua on Tuesday that he did not know about the Chinese secret project, but confirmed that both Chinese and Vietnamese scientists succeeded in extracting artemisinin from the "thanh hao hoa vang" plant to make anti-malaria medicine decades ago.

"As far as I know, Chinese scientists in 1972 extracted artemisinin from the "thanh hao hoa vang" and used artemisinin to treat malaria patients on a trial basis. In Vietnam, as early as in the 14th century, a famous physician named Tue Tinh used "thanh hao hoa vang" to cure malaria in patients," the department's official said.

In 1989, Vietnamese researcher Dinh Huynh Kiet and his associates announced their findings about the chemical components of wild "thanh hao hoa vang" and artemisinin used to cure local soldiers who were infected with malaria, the official said, noting that since that year, many Vietnamese provinces have grown the plant. Endi