(Photo/CCTV)

A 98-year-old Chinese medical specialist has a goal to work until she's 100.

Specialist Li Huanying, a world-famous specialist in leprosy, retired in 2014, but she still goes to work every day at the Beijing Tropical Medicine Research Institute.

Li was born in Beijing in 1921. After graduating from China's Tongji University and Johns Hopkins University in the US, she became an official venereal disease expert with the World Health Organization (WHO).

In 1958, after working for the WHO for seven years, Li came back to China. She told China Central Television (CCTV) that she wanted to contribute the best of her years to her home country.

Being transferred to Beijing Tropical Medicine Research Institute of Beijing Friendship Hospital in 1978, Li began working with patients suffering from leprosy.

Leprosy was a horrible disease, and those who were infected were considered devils. They barely received any treatment, and some were even burned to death or buried alive.

"As doctors, we have no fear, so it was never a problem for me to deal with the disease," Li said.

(Photo/CCTV)

Thanks to Li and her team's efforts, all the leprosy patients in Mengla county, a severely afflicted area of the disease in southwestern China's Yunnan province, were cured in just two years.

To mark Li's contribution, the 19th International Leprosy Meeting, which was held in September 2016 in Beijing, granted her an award for lifetime attainments concerning the prevention of leprosy in China.

Contrary to her passion for work, Li likes a comfortable life outside of the hospital. "I don't have too many demands, and I can make do with life," She said. "I never complain about the rough times, because they were my choices."

(Photo/CCTV)

Today, less than 3,000 people in China suffer from leprosy. This tiny figure is partly down to Li.

"I don't want my life to be worthless, so I have tried my best. It'd be a waste of time for me to read or watch TV at home. It's better for me to do something more meaningful while I'm still alive," Li said.