Chung Un Lee: The trailblazer of tropical medicine in China

Abstract

Abstract Chung Un Lee, (李宗恩, 1894–1962) was a pioneer of tropical medicine research in China, serving as the president of Guiyang Medical College, the dean of Peking Union Medical College, the vice president of the Chinese Medical Association, a member of the British Medical Association and the Far Eastern Tropical Medical Association (Fig. 1) (Lu, 1992). Chung Un Lee spent his life in medical education and scientific research, with outstanding achievements in research on filariasis, schistosomiasis, malaria, and kala-azar, confirming the reservoir of filariasis in China, innovating the application of plasmochin to combat malaria, proving that sandflies and dogs are sources of infection in human kala-azar, and making a clinical diagnosis of the early manifestations of kala-azar in China. Chung Un Lee is a distinguished medical scientist and medical educator, one of the founders of Chinese Tropical Medicine, who fought for forty years for the prevention and treatment of tropical diseases in China and conducted pioneering research in Chinese Tropical Medicine.