God is fair to everyone. It brings them to the brilliant world, teaches them the truth of the world, helps them survive in the world, but also leaves diseases with them in the world.

Malaria is an important public health problem of global concern, widely popular around the world. According to World Health Organization statistics, there are still 92 countries and regions in high and medium prevalence, annual incidence of malaria is 1.5 million people, and more than 200 million people died of malaria.

Tu Youyou, who won the Nobel Prize in 2015, found artemisinin which can effectively reduce malaria mortality. Besides, she was the first Chinese person who won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She worked at the forefront of malaria research for nearly 50 years, and her achievements saved millions of people’s lives. Tu said she was just an ordinary plant chemistry researcher, but she was proud of making contributions to the Chinese medicine as well as being recognized by the international scientific community of Chinese scientists.

“In my childhood, I had witnessed a scene of a doctor using Chinese herbal medicine to cure a patient. However, I never thought my life would be so close to these magical Chinese herbal medicine,” she sighed with emotion.

In 1967, Communist leader Mao Zedong decided there was an urgent national need to find a cure for malaria. At the time, malaria spread by mosquitoes was decimating Chinese soldiers fighting Americans in the jungles of northern Vietnam. A secret research unit was formed to find a cure for the illness. Two years later, Tu Youyou was instructed to become the new head of Mission 523. She was dispatched to the southern Chinese island of Hainan province to study how malaria threatened human health.

Based on the ancient Chinese texts and a lots of researches, Tu and her group developed a new drug, artemisinin . After the drug showed promising results in mice and monkeys, Tu volunteered to be the first human recipient of the new drug.

"As the head of the research group, I had the responsibility," she said.

Fortunately, the treatment worked and was proved safe for humans. Along with insecticide-treated bed nets, artemisinin became a crucial tool in the fight against malaria in Africa and Asia. Experts credit the discovery with saving millions of lives.

“I’m really grateful to the doctor for creating such a curative medicine. Without her, I would die,” said Gao Xiaomin, a patient who suffered from malaria and received treatments by artemisinin.

For decades, Tu Youyou received little recognition for her research with Mission 523. However, she never cares about the reputation that she deserves. Besides, Tu is typically described in China as a "modest" woman. She once remembered the moment of her discovery by saying, “Of course that was a really happy moment in my career as a researcher.” 

Only in 2011, when Tu was awarded the prestigious Lasker DeBakey clinical medical research award, did Communist party officials in her home town begin scrambling to locate and preserve the scientist’s childhood home. When reporters asked for her thoughts on that award, Tu simply replied, “I am too old to bear this.”

Until in 2015, Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize for medicine, her works and contributions were wildly recognized by all of the world. There were no doubt that the discovery of artemisinin to treat malaria brought the medical community a bright future. In addition, the artemisinin was also a present which To brought to the patients with malaria in the world.

I’m really proud of that Tu Youyou became the first Chinese winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It shows the truth that we Chinese can also make contributions to the world in medical area. Furthermore, the story of Tu inspires us to being more creative and persevering in our dreams. I believe that only if someone makes contributions to the world, the world will recognize him or her sooner or later.