Gao Yaojie, a well-known Chinese doctor and activist who exposed the AIDS virus epidemic in rural China in the 1990s, died on Sunday at the age of 95, according to the BBC. Dr. Gao died naturally in New York, where she had been living in exile since 2009. Prof. Andrew J. Nathan, a Columbia University scholar of Chinese politics who handled her affairs in the United States, confirmed her death.
Dr. Gao, a trained gynecologist, became well-known and beloved throughout China in the late 1990s for her unwavering activism in exposing a man-made AIDS crisis and working to remove the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. She discovered that AIDS was spreading through run-down blood transfusion clinics with official government support.
She spoke out against blood-selling schemes, which infected thousands of people with HIV, primarily in her home province of Henan in central China. Dr. Gao treated patients all over the country, often at her own expense. She is said to have visited over 100 “Aids villages” and met with over 1,000 families, offering them food, clothing, and medicine. Her work was also recognized by international organizations and officials.
”AIDS not only killed individuals but destroyed countless families. This was a man-made catastrophe. Yet the people responsible for it have never been brought to account, nor have they uttered a single word of apology,” Dr. Gao said in an interview with The New York Times in 2016.
Gao Yaojie faced Chinese government opposition, fled to Manhattan
Her candor about the virus outbreak, on the other hand, embarrassed the Chinese government, and officials repeatedly tried to prevent her from traveling abroad, where she was being recognized for her work. She was briefly placed under house arrest in 2007 to prevent her from traveling to the United States to accept a prize for her work in women’s health.
In the face of increased surveillance and pressure from the Chinese government, she fled to Manhattan, New York, in 2009. Guo Mingjiu, her husband, died in 2006. She leaves behind two daughters and a son.
Her ashes will be scattered on the Yellow River in Henan, representing her ties to her homeland.