14 Facts About Shuping Wang

Shuping Wang was a Chinese-American medical researcher and public health whistleblower.

Shuping Wang exposed the poor practices that led to the spread of hepatitis C and HIV in central China in the 1990s, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives.

Shuping Wang's father, Zou Bangyan, was a mathematics teacher who served as a soldier of the Kuomintang Army, which made her childhood difficult during the Cultural Revolution.

Shuping Wang refused the Red Guards' command to denounce her parents and was expelled from school at the age of 8.

Shuping Wang graduated from Henan Medical College in 1983, specializing in infectious diseases.

Shuping Wang found that several donors were infected with hepatitis C but were not turned away.

Shuping Wang approached the national Ministry of Health with her findings, which led to a 1993 regulation to require all plasma donors to be screened for hepatitis C Shuping Wang was removed from her position at the collection center, but took it upon herself to evaluate other facilities elsewhere, creating her own testing site and taking her own samples from the population, as well as evaluating collection centers and identifying further points of cross-contamination.

Shuping Wang recognized the same concerns she had on discovering hepatitis, and began evaluating for the HIV virus that is a precursor to AIDS.

Shuping Wang took her data to the Ministry of Health, and in 1996, a new regulation requiring HIV screening for donors was established, and ultimately leading China to take more precautionary measures to control the epidemic.

Shuping Wang formed a campaign with Gao Yaojie, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Henan who would become a major AIDS activist in China; Wang evaluated the blood samples, while Yaojie was the spokesperson to report on these.

Shuping Wang was targeted for her whistleblowing by local health officials.

Shuping Wang later moved to Beijing and found work there before moving to the United States in 2001.

Shuping Wang became a naturalized US citizen and worked as medical researcher both in Milwaukee and at the University of Utah until her death.

Shuping Wang died from an apparent heart attack while she was hiking with Christensen in a canyon in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 21 September 2019.