Gao Yaojie

Gao Yaojie

Gao Yaojie, female, from Caoxian County, Shandong Province, was born in 1927 and graduated from Medical College of Henan University in 1954. Deputy to the Seventh National People's Congress of Henan Province, member of Jiusan Society, researcher of Henan literature and History Research Institute, retired professor of Henan University of traditional Chinese medicine, and expert of gynecological oncology. Over the years, nearly one million yuan has been spent on Printing AIDS prevention publicity materials at their own expense, helping AIDS patients and AIDS orphans, and has been praised as "the first person in China's civil AIDS prevention" by the media.

He won the "Nobel Prize in Asia" - Asian Ramon McGregor prize for public service, "Jonathan Mann prize for health and human rights" and so on. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Discovered on October 23, 2000, asteroid 38980 was named "Gao Yaojie".

In August 2009, he settled in New York as a visiting scholar.

He has published "Gao Yaojie's Soul: Gao Yaojie's Memoirs (Revised Edition)", "blood disaster: 10000 letters: a real record of China's AIDS epidemic" and "revealing the true face of China's AIDS epidemic".

Profile

Gao Yaojie (1927 -), female, from Caoxian County, Shandong Province, graduated from Medical College of Henan University in 1954. Deputy to the Seventh National People's Congress of Henan Province, member of Jiusan Society, researcher of Henan literature and History Research Institute, retired professor of Henan University of traditional Chinese medicine, and expert of gynecological oncology. In 1996, she found a case of HIV infection due to blood transfusion, and began to realize the seriousness of blood borne AIDS. From this year, she began to carry out AIDS prevention and relief work at her own expense, and from 2000, she began to focus on the relief of AIDS orphans. In more than six years, she visited more than 100 villages in Henan Province and met more than 1000 AIDS patients. She published the book "prevention and treatment of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases" at her own expense and distributed 300000 copies free of charge, with an expenditure of more than 400000 yuan. Sponsored by her "AIDS prevention knowledge" newspaper has also been published 15 times, printing 530000 copies. Over the years, nearly one million yuan has been spent on Printing AIDS prevention publicity materials at their own expense, helping AIDS patients and AIDS orphans, and has been praised as "the first person in China's civil AIDS prevention" by the media. In 2001, the "Global Health Council" awarded her the "Jonathan Mann health and human rights award" of that year. She used the $20000 prize and $10000 grant to print the book "prevention and treatment of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases". UN Secretary General Kofi Annan praised her as a female activist engaged in AIDS prevention education in rural China. In 2002, she was awarded the title of "Asian hero" by time magazine and "Asian Star" by business week; in the first half of 2003, she was awarded the "Asian Nobel Prize" - Asian Ramon McGonagall Public Service Award; in 2004, she was elected as the person of the year of CCTV "moving China" in 2003; in March 2007, she went to the United States to receive the world women's rights organization's "Life Award" The annual "global women leaders" award of Vital Voices global partnership. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. In August 2009, she came to the United States and finally settled in New York as a visiting scholar.

AIDS prevention

The man who sounded the alarm

"Granny, you can't think of it clearly. You have come up with AIDS. How can we have this disease?" In 1996, retired Gao Yaojie went to a hospital for consultation and met a female patient who was extremely thin, had a high fever and had dark purple spots on her skin. She remembers reading the introduction of "AIDS" in a book. It seems that there are some similar symptoms. However, as soon as she raised her doubts, some young doctors immediately denied it. At that time, everyone felt that AIDS was too far away from themselves.

The patient was later diagnosed after receiving a blood transfusion. "At first I didn't believe it was China's business." Like many people, Gao Yaojie initially suspected that the "style" of the patient or her husband was not good. "The patient's wife was very unhappy, but she accepted the examination. The results were all negative. Gao Yaojie believed that the patient was infected through blood transfusion.

Gao Yaojie's first case of AIDS actually gave her a little education: she had many prejudices and misunderstandings about AIDS. In the autumn of this year, she began to take down the knowledge she saw from various materials and compile and print AIDS prevention knowledge at her own expense. In the following two or three years, it continued to spread to many places in Henan.

In August 1999, Gao Yaojie received a letter from a county prosecutor in Henan Province. The letter contained a few words, but it clearly told her that there were many AIDS patients in Wenlou Village of Shangcai County recently. It was almost instinctive, and she was immediately alert. In fact, two months ago, Professor GUI Xi'en of Medical College of Wuhan University had "noticed" Wenlou Village. One of his Henan students told him that there was a strange disease in his hometown, which took many people's lives. I hope he can help to have a look. GUI Xi'en later confirmed that the "strange disease" was actually AIDS. At that time, he had found hundreds of AIDS carriers, all victims of the "plasma economy" prevailing in Henan in the early 1990s.

After receiving the letter, Gao Yaojie immediately found a reporter and went to Wenlou Village for the first time in September 1999. Knowing that she was a doctor, the situation at that time was not as tense as later. A 28-year-old woman named Wu Long pulled her hand: "I'll cook peanuts for you." then she walked into the room. Next month, wu long is dead. She and her husband met and married when they were selling blood. The young couple, the old couple, and the two children in the family are HIV positive. "The local people know who's home. I've been to more than a dozen houses, but there are few good families. " "It's hard! It's the same fate. How can we live like this? " The old man didn't understand. When he got home, he lay in bed and couldn't sleep all night.

Poverty has forced these villagers to sell their blood in exchange for temporary wealth. The money has not been kept in their hands for several years. The greater disaster will not only wipe out the original hard-earned money, but also completely destroy families. In November, Gao Yaojie contacted 12 AIDS patients. Before the Spring Festival, she sent 100 yuan to each of them to let them have a good Spring Festival. Who knows, half a month later, she received four refund forms, all written "the payee is dead". "Life is so fragile! (at that time) those who spoke loudly said that they would die. "

Often deep into the AIDS epidemic area, Gao Yaojie saw too much suffering and tragedy. In March 2001, 42 year old AIDS patient Wang Youzhi wrote a letter to Gao Yaojie, hoping to see one side, "I rushed to the village, the village is funeral, went to the coffin, only to know that it was Wang Youzhi who died, I wailed.". At first, it was hard for the elderly to accept, but today, for the AIDS village, death is a reality that happens all the time. Most of the time is to see a village a day 9 families of AIDS funeral. "If you die, you'll die. It's a little numb. It's not so hard." The old man sighed for a long time. The first group of AIDS patients she knew, she could say the names of more than 20 people at a time, "now that group of people are not looking for me, dead, become a dead..."

For a long time, some aids people also know about Gao Yaojie. They know that nobody cares about them, but the old lady will at least help. "I'll be in charge, and I'll spend a lot of money. When they come and cry, they give them at least 50 yuan or 100 yuan. As soon as they leave, they give them one after another, and thousands of yuan will be gone. " In the past few years, I have posted all the contributions and lecture fees I have earned outside. Some reporters also found Gao Yaojie, hoping that she could help to visit the real situation of the AIDS village. Gao Yaojie never refused such a request, although sometimes it was really difficult for her, an old man in her late eighties.

At 5 a.m. on March 29, 2001, Gao Yaojie came to the railway station to open a new epidemic area. I arrived at Zhumadian at 10 a.m. and then changed to Xincai by bus. As a result, I encountered a very serious traffic jam on the road. The two young people who went with her were so oppressed that they pushed to the window and jumped down. But the 70 year old man couldn't get out of the car and couldn't breathe. I was stuck in the car from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and I didn't even drink water. When I got to Zhumadian, my legs swelled to my knees.

As the epidemic situation became more and more serious, Cai Wenlou and other places were gradually known by the outside world. She also gradually became a particularly unpopular person in the eyes of some people. A scheduled lecture on "AIDS prevention knowledge" was cancelled because "no AIDS patient has been found in Henan so far"; a photographer secretly went to Weishi County to take photos, and someone immediately found Gao Yaojie's home, suspecting that she was "colluding" with the photographer and asked her to get the film out. When the AIDS epidemic and figures were still linked with "politics", Gao Yaojie faced a lot of unspeakable pressure. Some people said that she lost her face in Henan. "Anhui and Hubei also have AIDS villages, but the people there are smart, not noisy, not Gao Yaojie!" Gao Yaojie knows that she is a "controversial" person, but she said: "what I do, the people support me. As long as they support me, I will continue to do it."

Now, Gao Yaojie's goal is not to go to the old epidemic areas that have been "recognized" and "I want to" fight "new epidemic areas.". Indeed, every time we go to the epidemic area for investigation, there is a sense of "fighting" guerrillas. Once, I heard that the epidemic situation in three townships of Weishi County was very serious, with a high incidence

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