A young Pakistani doctor has won the hearts of the Chinese people after he decided to offer his services to help the country fight against the deadly coronavirus that has killed over 300 people and infected more than 14,000.
Dr Usman, a Pakistani teacher at Changsha Medical College, is the first foreign doctor who stepped forward to treat infected people in Wuhan as a volunteer.
The young doctor decided to move to Wuhan after he learned about the shortage of medical professionals in the epidemic-hit city.
“The news said the epidemic area is lacking medical staff, I am a doctor…, I would like to go to the Wuhan to help the doctor!”
Following the ongoing media coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, on January 27, Dr Usman formally applied to the foreign experts service office of Hunan science and technology department, hoping that he could go to the Wuhan for medical assistance.
“The staff of the foreign expert service sent me the methods of epidemic prevention and virus isolation every day, asking me to protect myself and solving many difficulties for me.”
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Taking to Twitter, the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan stated: “We appreciate Dr Muhammad Usman Janjua, a foreign doctor to join the fight against coronavirus in China as a volunteer. He is a teacher from Changsha Medical University, China and hails from Deena, Jhelum, Pakistan.”
Several Pakistani students, businessmen across China have also applauded the noble gesture by the doctor, who is helping Chinese paramedics combat the epidemic.
Usman, 29, had dreamed of becoming a doctor since he was a child. He graduated from Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine with a bachelor’s degree in 2012 and returned to Pakistan to practice medicine for four years.
During the four years of stay in his hometown, he had always been unable to forget China and Changsha. He said that China had provided him with good opportunities for education and employment and realized his dream.
In 2016, he returned to China and began studying for a master’s degree in medicine at Central South University in Changsha. After graduation, he became a foreign teacher at Changsha medical college.
More Deaths
The death toll in China climbed to 304 on Sunday after authorities reporting 45 new deaths from the previous day.
There were 2,590 new confirmed cases in China, bringing the total to nearly 14,500.
The number of confirmed infections in China is far higher than the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak of 2002-03.
SARS, which is caused by a pathogen similar to the new coronavirus and also originated in China, killed 774 people worldwide — most of them in mainland China and Hong Kong.