Coronavirus infection: Whistleblower doctor dies in China
Rapidly spreading Coronavirus has caused the death of the Chinese doctor, who was among the first to blow the whistle on the contagious virus. Li Wenliang, 34, an ophthalmologist died on Friday due to infection, a news report doing rounds in media stated.
As a doctor working in a hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, he had warned the world about the virus, similar to SARS, which killed almost 800 people around the world in 2002-2003.
He faced the wrath of local police authorities for “publishing falsehoods” after he mentioned in an informal group about seven cases of a virus from a seafood market.
As per a BBC report, the doctor was even summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of “making false comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order .”
He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for “spreading rumours”.
In his Weibo post he describes how on 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on 30 January.
The highly contagious virus which has killed 636 people and infected 31,161 in mainland China since it was first reported in Wuhan city, has raised alarm across the globe with countries taking various precautionary measures to contain the disease.
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