Hardest decision

Spring 2009 saw a swine flu pandemic that revolved around a new strain of the H1N1 influenza virus and quickly spread to about 170 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

The organization quickly declared a Phase-six Influenza Pandemic Emergency, the highest level of alert. Hou, who was 80 at the time, was given the task of leading China's response to the outbreak.

Many protocols that originated with the 2003 SARS outbreak were carried over to tackle the new virus. That gave China the ability to react quickly, and on July 22, 2009, it became the first country to produce an effective vaccine.

However, a new problem quickly emerged. The new virus was so contagious that many experts, including those at the WHO, believed people would require two shots of the vaccine to be completely protected, but China's pharmaceutical companies were unable to produce sufficient quantities of the vaccine to meet the requirement.

"One dose or two doses; it was the hardest decision Hou has had to make in his entire career," Jin said. "To say he was in the hot seat is an understatement; it was more like a volcano. Because 2009 was also the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the pressure was mind-blowing."

Hou argued that one dose would provide adequate protection because he realized that a single dose would trigger a natural recurring immune response and the vaccine would remain active in the body for a long time. The expert committee founded to resolve the issue eventually accepted Hou's argument.

"It was a very courageous decision," said Dong Xiaoping, deputy director of the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention. "But it was also the most rational and ideal one, given our needs and production capabilities. Stipulating two doses would have meant a lot of Chinese being left unprotected, but Hou simply could not accept leaving anyone behind."

In the end, Hou's vaccines and countermeasures protected around 250 million people from the virus, saved more than 200 billion yuan and ended the pandemic in China a year before the official end date in the rest of the world, August 2010, according to an evaluation report by Tsinghua University's Department of Public Health.

"Hou was able to make the correct call thanks to his unparalleled knowledge of the subject, his ability to see and predict global trends, and his ability to anticipate how a virus can affect the human body," Jin said.

"His insight only grows sharper with age, and he still amazes us to this day."