1 . Hospitals in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province for the first time used 5G technology for disaster medical rescue, after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Changning county on 17 June, 2019. This is the world’s first case of applying 5G technology to disaster medical rescue.

According to the official Weibo account of Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, at 1:25 p.m. on 18 June, an ambulance equipped with a 5G emergency rescue system — the first of its kind in the country — carrying a medical team from Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital and engineers from China Mobile Sichuan Company and China Mobile (Chengdu) Industrial Research Institute assisting in the joint rescue efforts arrived at Changning County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). At around 9:30 p.m. Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital launched a 5G real­time remote video consultation with its medical team on a patient admitted to Changning County Hospital of TCM for a suspected spleen rupture (脾脏破裂).

According to Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, the 5G emergency rescue system, which puts artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (增强现实), virtual reality   and   drone (无人机)   applications together, allows a series of medical checks including blood tests, electrocardiograms and ultrasounds (心电图和超声波) to be given to patients right away.The information can then be transferred back to the hospital in real time,   which greatly saves time in rescuing patients.

The rescue system also helped a 72­year­old patient who had his bone broken in the earthquake. According to a report from Chinanews.con, a temporary ward supported by 5G technology was established at the epicentre of the disaster zone for consultation with doctors from Chengdu, as the aged patient had a previous history of high blood pressure and cerebral infarction (脑梗塞), which made him need more careful treatment.

“The 5G­-based network thoroughly solved the problems of poor definition and distortion (失真) of images, as well as interupted signal transmission,” said Li Wei, director of the emergency centre of Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital.

2 . In the past, westerners were not familiar with Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM), but now it is becoming globally popular. According to a government report, TCM has been introduced into 183 countries and regions around the world.

However, westerners only have a little knowledge of TCM. Their understanding of TCM may be limited to acupuncture(针灸), cupping and massage(按摩). For instance, the purple, injury-like marks left on a U.S. famous swimmer’s back from cupping to relax his muscles and reduce pain became the centre of attention during the Rio Olympics in 2016.

In fact, Chinese herbs(药草) play a more important role in curing diseases and keeping the body in good condition in the TCM treatment system than physical treatment. Therefore, it is disappointing to know that although 103 World Health Organisation member countries have given approval to the practice of acupuncture, not many recognise Chinese herbal medicine. TCM is much less popular than Western medicine partly due to the slow development of Chinese herbs.

Herbs can be made into pills, powder and soup. The kind of herbs used, their quality, quantity and the processing together determine the effectiveness of the prescription(处方). Compared with Western medicine, which has standardised drug production processes and treatment methods, TCM lacks standardisation. The chemical composition and functions of its medicine are still unclear and their effects are unstable. Fortunately, standardisation has improved in recent decades and a number of factories are increasingly producing patented TCM drugs.

Another reason why TCM prescription drugs have developed slowly is that it lacks creativity. While Western medicine-making companies come up with new products every year, TCM drug producers tend to make medicine according to prescriptions handed down from the past. That Chinese chemist Tu Youyou won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her research into malaria(疟疾)treatment may drive creativity to some extent in China’s TCM industry.

However, Rome was not built in a day. The current situation cannot be changed within a short time.

4 . Each year there are at least five million people around the world who develop serious flu (流感), and almost half a million deaths. When someone we know gets the flu virus, we expect them to be very careful not to pass it on to others. Doctors and nurses working with flu patients also need to protect themselves from the virus. But what is the best way to do this? This is the question that flu expert Professor Jonathan Van-Tam at Nottingham University is trying to answer. He wants to find out how flu is transmitted, so that he can stop doctors and nurses getting sick.

Van-Tam explains their method, “There are 41 volunteers in my experiment. Some healthy volunteers are made to get flu first. When they show symptoms, other volunteers, usually called recipients (接受者), enter the house. Everyone lives together in the small space for four days. Some of the recipients wear face masks, and wash their hands every 15 minutes, but some have no protection. In this way we can study who catches the flu and which ways of transmitting flu are important. During the four days when they are in contact with the virus, and for the ten days after that, the flu recipients are checked regularly.”

The experiment is not simple and it is very expensive. It is difficult to design correctly, and it is also difficult to plan and carry out. Just one study like this takes about 18 months to organise and needs hundreds of people working on it. But Van-Tam believes it is worth because the results will help to decide what type of protection is needed for people working in hospitals with large numbers of flu patients around the world. And perhaps it could reduce the number of deaths from flu each year.

5 . Tu Youyou has become the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize for her work in helping to create an anti-malarial (疟疾) medicine. The 84-year-old’s route to the honour has been anything but traditional. In China, she is being called the “three nos” winner: no medical degree, no doctorate, and she’s never worked overseas.

In 1967, malaria, a deadly disease at that time, spread by mosquitoes was decimating Chinese soldiers fighting Americans in the jungles of northern Vietnam. A secret research unit “Mission 523” was formed to find a cure for the illness. Two years later Tu Youyou was instructed to become the new head of “Mission 523”.

“Mission 523” read ancient books carefully for a long time to find historical methods of fighting malaria. When she started her search for an anti-malarial drug,more than 240,000 compounds around the world had been tested, without any success. Finally, the team found a brief reference to one substance, sweet wormwood (青蒿), which had been used to treat malaria in China around 400 AD. The team took out one active compound (化合物) in wormwood, and then tested it. But nothing was effective until Tu Youyou returned to the original ancient text. After another careful reading, she changed the drug recipe one final time, heating the compound without allowing it to reach boiling point.

After the drug showed promising results in mice and monkeys, Tu Youyou volunteered to be the first human recipient (接受者) of the new drug. In any case, Tu Youyou is consistently praised for her drive and passion. One former colleague, Lianda Li, says Ms. Tu is “unsociable and quite straightforward”, adding that “if she disagrees with something, she will say it”.

Another colleague, Fuming Liao, who has worked with Tu Youyou for more than 40 years, describes her as a “tough and stubborn woman”. Stubborn enough to spend decades piecing together ancient texts, she applies them to modern scientific practices. The result has saved millions of lives.

7 . Sunstroke is a condition that can quickly go from dangerous to deadly, especially if proper care isn’t given immediately.

Sunstroke, sometimes called heatstroke, is a result of the body temperature rising above the safe limit. This causes the body’s necessary functions to stop working.

It’s usually pretty easy to avoid sunstroke, as long as proper action is taken. In that case, you need to act as quickly as possible to return that person’s body to a safe temperature. Here are a few tips to help treat sunstroke.

Call for help

Call to get an ambulance as quickly as possible. This should be the first thing you do, especially if the sunstroke person has fainted (昏倒)。Also, call for help from anyone nearby if you’re in a public place. If there’s no one around, call someone nearby if they can get there sooner than an ambulance. Ask everyone to bring you as much water as possible, if there isn’t much nearby.

Get the person to a cooler area

If there’s a building nearby, aim for that. Anywhere with plenty of air conditioners and water is perfect. If a building isn’t available, bring the person to a well-shaded area.

Get the water flowing

If the person is still conscious, get him or her to drink water. If there’s a bathtub available, fill it with cool water and put the person in it.

If your water supply is limited, you have to save it. Dampen a towel or shirt and put it on the person’s body. Focus on the face, neck, and chest.

Fan the person

Getting moving air over the person cools him or her down. Use anything, a towel or sheet, a shirt, your hands, or a piece of board. This is where having many people around really helps, as they can combine to fan the entire body.

10 . First aid is emergency care for a victim of sudden illness or injury until more skillful medical treatment is available. It may save a life. In minor emergencies, first aid may prevent a victim’s condition from turning worse and provide relief from pain.

First aid measures depend upon a victim’s needs and the provider’s level of knowledge and skill. Knowing what not to do in an emergency is as important as knowing what to do. Improperly moving a person with a neck injury, for example, can lead to permanent spinal (脊柱) injury and paralysis (瘫痪).

Despite the varieties of injuries, several principles of first aid apply to all emergencies. The first step is to call for professional medical help. Next, assess the scene, asking other people or the injured person’s family or friends about details of the injury or illness, and preexisting conditions such as diabetes (糖尿病) or heart trouble. The victim should be checked for a medical card that describes special medical conditions. Unless the accident scene becomes unsafe or the victim may suffer further injury, do not move the victim.

First aid requires rapid assessment of victims to determine whether life-threatening conditions exist. One method for evaluating a victim’s condition is known by the acronym (字母缩写词) ABC, which stands for:

A-Airway: is it open and clear?

B-Breathing: is the person breathing? Look, listen, and feel for breathing.

C-Circulation: is there a pulse? Is the person bleeding extremely? Check skin color and temperature for additional indications of circulation problems.