Dissident doctor who exposed China’s Aids epidemic, dies at 95

Gao Yaojie, a renowned dissident doctor who exposed the Aids epidemic in rural China, has died aged 95.

Dr Gao died of natural causes in New York, where she had been in exile since 2009, a friend of hers told the BBC.

Her work uncovered how businesses selling blood led to the spread of HIV in the countryside.

She was at the forefront of Aids activism in China and travelled across the country treating patients, often at her own expense.

A gynaecologist by training, Dr Gao encountered her first AIDS patient in the central province of Henan in 1996.

Selling blood was common in rural areas such as Henan, where Dr Gao lived, in the 1980s and 1990s.

Limited economic opportunities among farming communities left them with few other options to make a living – and blood-selling was often backed by local governments.

But with few cases of HIV being diagnosed in rural China at the time, and low awareness of the disease, blood was also collected from HIV+ patients, leading to the spread of the disease.

Dr Gao had claimed that 10 million people were infected with HIV in China, far greater than Beijing’s official figure of 740,000. But this was disputed by officials.

While Dr Gao was not the first the Chinese doctor to speak up about the country’s Aids epidemic, it was her work that gained the most attention at home and abroad.

She also won numerous awards for it.Chinese authorities were initially lenient but later grew uncomfortable with her criticism of officials.

She left China in 2009, in the face of surveillance and growing pressure from authorities.

She moved to New York eventually and lived there until she died. Despite her long absence from China, her death has been mourned by some Chinese online.

“She was a great figure. But young people nowadays may not know about that history,” said one user on social media platform Weibo.

“Our generation of news workers or news readers know her and remember her. It [the news] also reminded me of other Chinese doctors’ names such as Jiang Yanyong and Li Wenliang,” said Chinese journalist Li Weiao on Weibo, referring to the whistleblowers of the Sars outbreak of 2003 and the Covid pandemic respectively.

Mr Eazi receives over N500k as engagement gift from his doctor

Nigerian singer-songwriter, Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade popularly known as Mr Eazi has received £1,000 (N530k) from his doctor as engagement gift.

The Banku Music pioneer and his fiancée, Temi Otedola got engaged days ago and it was the talk of the town.

Mr Eazi announced the huge cash gift in a post on his Instagram story as he shared a screenshot of the alert.

My Doctor just sent me a soft £1000 engagement gift hehe be like my doctor,” he captioned the snapshot.

See his post:

Twitter user shares story of how a doctor forgot a knife in his body , during a surgery.

Twitter user shares story of how a doctor forgot a knife in his body , during a surgery.

Twitter user shares a true life story of how a doctor forgot a knife in his body , during a surgery. He wrote;

Many been asking why I have not been active, okay here’s my story, and it’s a THREAD. Read slowly

November last year I got stabbed, most of my followers where aware of this, “it is not dat deep” say the doctor that stitched me up that night. ?

But after the stabbing incident, my health went from 100-10. I fall ill every 2wks from one medication to another no proper improvement, so we had to go see our family doc, who advised us to go for an X-ray after carrying out some checkup on me, low and behold ??. “ A knife “


A knife inside my chest?? How come? Shebi that doctor that stitched me up said the wounds weren’t that deep and I was very lucky? So Where the knife pass enter my body go digest for my chest??. To make things worst family doc said the only way out was an operation. My hrt skip ?

Before my heart resume kicking again, I dun already land for benin “UBTH” to be precise, my parents no even allow me breath digest the operation gist. UBTH doctors too sef no get chill, I just come dem no even give me coke to take relax my mind, dem begin take my blood upTo cut the story short. The operation was carried out,and it was a success. All happened like a dream that Tuesday evening, from rolling me out from the emergency unit to the theatre and sleeping off like a baby only for me to wake up that it was done. Omo! I breath reach ground .

Here’s the knife that was removed. So I ask myself, what would have happened if I had not travel home to see our family doctor? I for dey Lagos dey treat typhoid & fever whereas I was dying slowly. GOD truly works in a miraculous way. ??‍♂️

Omo henceforth I’m now a born again o, Jonah no see pass like this before e repent. My brothers & sisters, God dey heaven and he watches over his own. Abeg Repent. ???

Not to take anything away from the doctors that carried out the operation, they really did their maximum for me, professionals wey sabi work. God bless all UBTH professionals ❤️??