Hatem, George

Hatem, George (Ma Haide, Chinese name)

(1910–88) physician; born in Buffalo, N.Y. After training in Beirut and Geneva he moved to Shanghai and in 1936 became physician to the communist army. After 1949 he headed China's massive public health program; his eradication of venereal disease and leprosy saved millions of lives and rates as one of the greatest ever achievements in public health. He is also one of a relatively few Westerners ever to have been fully integrated into Chinese society.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.