Zhong Nanshan Photo:VCG

A team led by China's top respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan was awarded the nation's top science award on Wednesday for outstanding contributions to research on respiratory diseases in the past half century. 

From Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak to the COVID-19 pandemic, from lung cancer to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the team, led by Zhong, He Jianxing and Ran Pixin, always upholds the attitude to seek truth from the facts, to dare to speak and to give treatment, as well as upholds the principle of life-paramountcy. Not to mention that they play a vital role in the global respiratory disease prevention and treatment. 

During the SARS outbreak in 2003, Zhong and his team helped the country control the epidemic with their expertise and transparency. 

They also have been engaged in the prevention and control of COPD, a common chronic respiratory disease. COPD is also one of the diseases with distinctive influence on the living quality and pulmonary functions of patients and with the highest mortality rate among different diseases in China. 

The team discovered that the prevalence rate of COPD in China reached 8.2 percent (data from 2007) and 35.1 percent of the patients had no distinctive respiratory symptoms. Most patients were female and with a long history of contact with bio-fuel. 

The research made a great breakthrough in epidemiology. Therefore, it was awarded as the "best paper of environmental epidemiology" in 2014 by the journal Lancet. It was the first time for Chinese scholars to win the award since it was established in 2008.

Global Times