The names of 10,151 nurses who fought severe acute respiratory syndrome in the Chinese capital have been recorded on a scroll in honor of their courage and sacrificial spirit.
All the nurses have been granted the title "Heroine Nurse" by the Beijing Medical Awards Foundation.
The commemorative scroll, 17 meters long and 45 centimeters wide, was completed by the foundation and Liu Chaoying, a calligrapher of pen handwriting. In its center is a painting of the Great Wall by noted Chinese artist Zhang Longxin, and the line "Heroine nurses are angels of health" by Prof. Wu Yingkai, a respected doctor and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China's leading scientific research body.
The nurses on the scroll were from 110 hospitals around Beijing, some of whom died in the fight against the disease. The scroll will be handed to a museum for permanent keeping.
(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2003)