Tu Youyou, the 85-year-old Chinese pharmacologist ,received the Nobel Prize for medicine in Stockholm on December 10,2015. Tu is the first Chinese Nobel winner in physiology or medicine. Also, in 2011, she became the first Chinese person to receive the US-based Lasker Award for clinical medicine. Based on a fourth-century Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) text, together with her team, she managed to get artemisinin from sweet wormwood through trial and error and developed an important drug that has significantly reduced death rates among patients suffering from _ . Tu delivered a speech titled Artemisinin is a Gift from TCM to the World. She has urged more research into the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine and called for joint efforts worldwide to fight against malaria and develop more potential uses for TCM, which she called a "great treasure" with thousands of years' history and empirical knowledge. She said that by combining TCM with modem scientific technologies, "more potential can be discovered in searching for new drugs " . According to the WHO, more than 240 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have benefited from artemisinin, and more than l. 5 million lives are estimated to have been saved since 2000 thanks to the drug. Apart from its contribution to the global fight against malaria, TCM played a vital role in the deadly outbreak of SARS across China in 2003. Besides treating viruses, TCM has been most effective in diagnosing diseases, cultivating fitness, treating difficult multisource illnesses, and using nonmedical methods such as acupuncture   and breathing exercises. However, TCM, which is based on a set of beliefs about human biology, is seldom understood or accepted by the West. Tu's success will bring more recognition and respect for TCM, experts say. The Western world should learn to appreciate the value of the treasures of TCM, which will lead to more basic scientific research into ancient TCM texts and ways to explore research findings worldwide. What can we learn from the passage?
This success may encourage Easterners to learn more about Chinese medicine. Nothing remains to be done in researching into TCM theories and texts. More research into the value of TCM should be carried out worldwide. TCM only contributes to the fight against malaria and SARS in China.