Chao Yuanfang: Imperial physician of the Sui Dynasty and an early pertussis observer?

Abstract

Early Chinese texts contain extensive disease descriptions, including various texts that contain descriptions of modernday conditions. During the Sui Dynasty, a leading scholar, Chao Yuanfang, may have authored a leading treatise 1400 years ago. Although these texts are the subject of ongoing research, evidence suggests that a clinical syndrome consistent with pertussis was observed in ancient China.