KARACHI: Being showered with praise on social media for volunteering to serve as the first international doctor to fight coronavirus in Wuhan, Dr Usman Janjua who hails from Jhelum says China is another home for him and he can’t leave the country and the Chinese people alone in any difficulty.

“Defeat is not an option in this war, but all together will soon defeat the coronavirus,” says the 29-year-old doctor, who studied medicine in China and teaches at Changsha Medical University in Hunan province, while talking to BBC. He explains that the Chinese government, medical staff and the public are united in fight against the virus.

Six to seven days ago, his father, Aurangzeb, a known teacher in Dinah, received his call. “After reporting his goodwill, he told me that the people of China and China need my help right now. Medical staff all over China, including doctors and nursing specialists, have been asked to volunteer their services in the coronavirus-infected area. I would like to offer my services on this occasion. I need your permission,” Mr Aurangzeb recalls, adding that for one moment he did not understand anything, but the next moment he told his son “now you are a doctor, you know what your duty is. I allow. Fulfil your duty”.

Dr Janjua shot to fame for being the first international doctor to volunteer to go to Wuhan to serve the Chinese people after news of the virus epidemic broke. However, he says: “I have not done anything big. Being a doctor, it was my duty to do whatever I can while abiding by my oath. At this point, taking one step back would have been cowardice and my conscience could never allow it.”

He says the Chinese government is using all its power and resources to defeat the virus. He believes China will soon secure the world.

He says: “I have a very close relationship with China. This is another home and home for me. I cannot leave China and the Chinese alone in any difficulty. If not too much but a little more than I can and will do.”

Dr Usman Janjua received intermediate education from a local college in Jhelum after which he went to Changsha Medical University in China in 2007 to study medicine. He returned in 2012 with a medical degree and served at Mayo Hospital, Lahore, for one year.

He then went back to Changsha Medical University for higher education and also joined the hospital in Changsha.

Since 2016, he has been serving as a doctoral professor at the university.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2020