Fever: How Tu Youyou Adapted Traditional Chinese Medicine to Find a Cure for Malaria

People were dying! Malaria is a deadly mosquito-borne disease that causes fevers, chills and often death. In 1969, the People's Republic of China created a task force to find a cure.

 

Working in the 1970s, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou reviewed the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) scrolls for ideas on where to start her research. She found 640 traditional treatments, and methodically started extracting compounds and testing them against malaria. Would any of them work?

 

Courage, resilience, and perseverance--follow the struggles of Nobel Prize scientist Tu Youyou as she works to find a cure to malaria.