Dr Ruth Pfau in numbers

Karachi: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued a commemorative Rs50 coin to honour the memory of humanitarian and German-born medical missionary Dr Ruth Pfau. For her tireless efforts to contain leprosy in Pakistan, she was often hailed as the ‘Mother Teresa of Pakistan’. In light of this commemoration, we set out to trace her accomplishments in numbers, as reported by BBC, The New York Times and Geo.

1929 

was the year Dr Pfau was born in Leipzig, Germany

17

was the age at which she crossed the border into West Germany to pursue a degree in medicine

1950

was the year she graduated as a physician

30

was her age when she set foot in Pakistan in hopes of acquiring an Indian visa

1960 

was the year she began working on getting leprosy under control in Pakistan and soon after joined Marie Adelaide Leprosy Center (MALC)

50,000

is the number of families she treated at the centre

1979

was the year she received Pakistan’s second-highest civilian award, Hilal-i-Imtiaz 

157 

is the number of MALC medical centres that were opened up under the supervision of Dr Pfau

1996

was the year her hard work bore fruit when the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Pakistan as the first country in the East Mediterranean region to have controlled leprosy

500

is the approximate number of patients that are treated at MALC annually

2017

was the year she passed away and was laid to rest in Karachi after a state funeral