Dr. Wu Lien-teh, the Chinese-Malaysian epidemiologist, is the man behind today's most essential must-have: the surgical face mask.

He is celebrated in today's Google Doodle on what would have been this doctor's 142nd birthday. This story unveils how Wu invented the face covering that is currently being considered the precursor to the N95 mask, now widely worn today in the fight against COVID-19.  A related video is shown on Rohit Gupta's YouTube below:

Described by The Sun as a devoted doctor who was a pioneering student of ethnic Chinese descent to examine medicine at Cambridge University, Dr. Wu invented the surgical face mask.

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Science Times - Wu Lien-Teh: The Man Behind Today’s Most Essential Protective Tool, Surgical Face Mask
(Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The N95 mask, highly-recommended to shield against COVID-19 infection, is widely considered as a design of Wu’s design.


It All Started During the Manchurian Plague

Newsweek reported that in 1910, an unknown epidemic struck the Manchuria region, and Wu was appointed by the Chinese government to conduct an investigation.

While doing so, he identified the disease as a highly infectious pneumonic plague that transmitted through respiratory transmission, which turned out to be known as the Manchurian plague.

One way that Wu helped fight the spread of the illness was by designing a surgical mask using cotton and gauze that comprised numerous layers of cloth to filter inhalations.

Then, the epidemiologist advised the public to wear his invented surgical mask and collaborated with the government to hospitals and quarantine stations, limit travel and implement progressive techniques for equipment sterilization. The huge pneumonic plague pandemic killed 60,000 individuals.

After he realized the disease was airborne, the doctor created design of Western face masks into more significant masks with layers of cotton and gauze to filter the air.

The mask was widely produced and when the Spanish Flu occurred in 1918, Wu's mask became very famous among scientists and medics.

Meet the Surgical Face Mask Inventor

Born on March 10, 1879 in Penang, Malaysia, Wu had 10 siblings and he studied at the Penang Free School. His father, who worked as a goldsmith, was an immigrant from China.

After winning the Queen's Scholarship in 1896, Wu attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge. His undergraduate clinical years were spent at different schools including St. Mary's Hospital, London, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the Pasteur Institute, among others.

Then, in 1903, he went back to Malaysia and married Ruth Shu-chiumg Huang. In the same year, he started his medical career at the Institute for Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur as the first ever student research student.

Part of Wu's success was his nomination for the prestigious award for his work to prevent a plague that killed tens of thousands of people. This epidemiologist died at age 60 in 1960, after dedicating his life to medicine.

Descendant of Wu's Mask

The N95 mask, highly-recommended to shield against COVID-19 infection, is widely considered a descendant of Wu's design.

During this global health crisis, numerous scholars have the essentiality of Wu's invention. Today, Google Doodle paid tribute to the doctor on his supposed 142nd birthday.

In honor of the mask inventor, Google wrote, his initiatives not just changed public health in China but that of the whole world.

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