Wikipedia marked its 25th anniversary on January 15, 2026, celebrating a remarkable journey of sharing knowledge through the efforts of nearly 250,000 volunteer editors worldwide. Among these dedicated contributors, Dr. Netha Hussain, an Indian physician and researcher, has emerged as a significant figure in the platform’s quarter-century milestone.
Born on June 11, 1990, Dr. Hussain is known for her sustained efforts to counter misinformation on Wikipedia, particularly related to the origin of the coronavirus and pandemic-related content.
To mark its milestone year, the Wikimedia Foundation launched the “Wikipedia 25” campaign and released its first-ever video docuseries showcasing the lives and stories of volunteer editors across the globe.
Dr. Hussain is one of eight editors featured in the series, which highlights how volunteers uphold Wikipedia’s strict standards of neutrality, accuracy, and reliability.
Her story appears alongside those of other contributors, including a Californian who has spent two decades documenting hurricanes and storms, and an elderly librarian in Tokyo working to make knowledge accessible in Japanese.
The docuseries carries a powerful message: “Even and especially in the age of AI, knowledge is human, and knowledge needs humans.”
Dr. Hussain’s journey with Wikipedia began unexpectedly in 2010, when she was a first-year medical student at Calicut Medical College in Kozhikode, Kerala. While writing a blog post, she noticed there was no Wikipedia entry for a type of chutney popular in her home state. She created the article, and within days, fellow editors expanded and refined her work, introducing her to the collaborative spirit of the platform.
In the early 2010s, Malayalam-language online searches for common conditions such as diabetes and hypertension often surfaced misleading and potentially harmful information. Many sources promoted unverified herbal remedies instead of evidence-based medical care.
Recognizing this gap, Dr. Hussain focused on creating and translating reliable medical content into Malayalam, helping ensure that millions of speakers could access accurate health information in their native language.
Dr. Hussain earned her PhD in Clinical Neuroscience from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2020. During the same year, as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded globally, she began actively creating and curating Wikipedia articles related to the virus in multiple languages.
She has authored nearly 30 Wikipedia articles on COVID-19, including detailed pages listing unproven methods falsely claimed to prevent or cure the disease. Her work came at a critical moment when misinformation about the virus, treatments, and vaccines was spreading rapidly across social media platforms.
Dr. Hussain’s contributions have received international recognition. The recognition highlights the 15-year journey of Dr. Hussain, who hails from Kozhikode and is currently based in Sweden, as a "Wikimedian".
Her honors include:
Women in Open Source Academic Award (2020) for her contributions to disseminating medical knowledge on Wikipedia
Special mention from the United Nations via its official Twitter handle in 2020
Wikimedian of the Year – Honourable Mention (2021), presented by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales during the virtual Wikimania conference
(Rh/VK)
