86-year-old man has studied mosquitoes for 70 years, just to prevent malaria
Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, April 25 (Reporter Yan Yong) Dong Xueshu, 86, is a mosquito researcher at the Yunnan Institute of Parasitic Disease Control and has been dealing with mosquitoes for 70 years.
From the identification and classification of mosquito species and the prevention and control of mosquito-borne infectious diseases, to the parts that are invisible to the naked eye on mosquito specimens, Mr. Dong is familiar with him.
In 1951, 16-year-old Dong Xueshu entered Guiyang Medical College (now Guizhou Medical University) to study.
When he was studying, because he studied insects and infectious diseases, mosquitoes became his research object.
As far as studying mosquitoes, he is a complete workaholic.
Draw mosquitoes under the microscope, catch mosquitoes in the field, teach students how to make specimens...Even in the 26 years since his retirement, Mr. Dong ran to the unit almost every day, and his work still revolved around mosquitoes.
"The research on mosquitoes is mainly for the prevention and treatment of mosquito-borne infectious diseases. It is like starting a war with an enemy. You must first find out the details of the enemy," said Dong Lao.
Dong Lao's day starts with feeding the mosquitoes.
In order to meet the needs of daily experiments, Dong Lao has been in the habit of raising mosquitoes for many years, and he is responsible for the three meals a day of mosquitoes.
In the early years, Mr. Dong opened a mosquito breeding room not far from his office.
There are three doors to enter and exit the mosquito breeding room.
There are more than 10 mosquito cages, which contain larvae and adult mosquitoes.
"To feed the larvae, you need to sprinkle a bit of crumbed fish feed." Dong Lao said, not to feed too much at a time, let them develop the habit of eating less and more meals.
After the larvae grow up, just feed some sugar water.
Sometimes, Mr. Dong is too busy to have time for his work, but he always wonders if the mosquitoes in the mosquito breeding room are hungry.
After feeding the larvae, he went to the herbarium where most mosquitoes are in the unit.
Tens of thousands of mosquito specimens from Yunnan have been collected here.
Why would Mr. Dong deal with mosquitoes in his life?
The story has to start with malaria prevention and treatment.
In 1956, an outbreak of malaria occurred in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, and the original Yunnan Provincial Health and Epidemic Prevention Station where Dong Lao was located received the task of disposal.
A group of more than 10 people hurried to the scene.
At that time, due to the lack of effective treatment drugs, malaria could only be controlled by controlling its transmission vector-Anopheles mosquitoes.
In Menghai alone, there are more than 50 species of Anopheles, and precise identification of the vector has become a top priority.
Some people run the villagers’ bedrooms, while others run the pigsty and cowshed.
Guarding in front of the pigpen and cowshed, the smelly smell is not good, but because there are many mosquitoes, Dong Lao is also happy to expose his thighs and directly lure the enemy.
Within a few minutes, many mosquitoes were attracted to his thighs. He used a mosquito tube to suck them into the glass bottle, and then determined the presence of malaria parasites in his salivary glands through anatomy.
After two years, they finally figured out the seasonal ebb and flow of local mosquito species distribution, and determined that Anopheles minus was the vector mosquito species that spread malaria.
Subsequently, targeted anti-mosquito and anti-mosquito work has been carried out one after another, and great results have been achieved.
After a large number of mass prevention and treatment efforts, the malaria infection rate has gradually decreased.
Affected by special geographical and climatic factors, malaria was once widespread in Yunnan.
Yunnan is also considered by experts at home and abroad to be one of the areas where malaria epidemic factors are the most complicated, the prevalence is the most serious, and the prevention, control and elimination of malaria are the most difficult.
Today, through the unremitting efforts of several generations of malaria prevention people, breakthroughs have been made in the prevention and treatment of malaria in Yunnan.
In June 2020, Yunnan Province passed the national final evaluation of malaria elimination. Yunnan, once known as the "Plaas Area", had no local cases of malaria infection for 4 consecutive years, achieving the goal of eliminating malaria.
Hearing this news, Dong Lao was more excited than anyone.
He said with emotion that their generation has dedicated their youth to this event, and what they are looking forward to is this day.
Even so, Dong Lao's work to figure out the "family" of mosquitoes continues, and the scope of research has been extended to countries such as Myanmar and Laos.
He said that he must continue to fight against them while his body is okay.