Nation mourns Ningbo-born developer of China’s polio vaccine

Gu Fangzhou, the father of China's polio vaccine [Photo/Xinhua]

Gu Fangzhou, the father of China's first polio vaccine, passed away in Beijing on Jan 2, aged 92, which aroused a stir among Chinese people, with many messages expressing their grief and respect for him spread on the internet recently. 

Gu, native to Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, was the former president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College. 

He developed China's first polio vaccines, in particular the attenuated oral vaccine, in the late 1950s and early 1960s when poliomyelitis was most prevalent in China that disabled and killed many children. 

He also made the vaccine in the form of a sugar ball to facilitate its storage and transportation, and to make it easier for children to take it, which earned him the name "Sugar Ball Grandpa" by Chinese children.

The implementation of a countrywide immunization strategy eradicated the indigenous polio strain by 1994. Poliomyelitis has since been effectively controlled, with China being declared polio-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October 2000. 

Despite such an achievement, Gu was very humble. "I've done only one thing in my lifetime, which is making a small sugar ball," Gu used to stress when he was alive. 

The funeral of Gu was held in Beijing on Jan 8.