Better healthcare to ease Africans' plight

Prevention efforts seen as key to halting spread of deadly diseases

China will continue its 50 years of medical cooperation with African countries, focusing on helping the countries to improve their capacity to fight infectious diseases, according to China's top health authority.

China has sent 24,000 medical workers to 66 countries and regions, providing treatment to nearly 270 million people, since it sent its first medical team to assist developing countries in 1963, the National Health and Family Planning Commission says.

A total of 1,178 medical staff members from China are now working in 51 countries and regions, 42 of which are in Africa.

"The Chinese medical staff not only helped locals control and prevent infectious diseases and other common diseases, they also introduced advanced medical technologies and traditional Chinese medicine and diagnosis methods such as acupuncture to these countries," the commission says. "They have also trained a number of medical staff for the countries through lecturing and practical guidance.

"The overseas medical teams have made remarkable contributions to the development of the medical and health sectors in these countries and won applause and friendship from their governments and people," it says.

According to the commission, about 1,000 members of Chinese medical teams have received various awards from the foreign countries they have served, including more than 50 who have died in foreign countries due to disease, war or accidents.

"Dispatching medical teams to African countries is the cooperation program between China and Africa that has extended over the longest period, involved the largest number of countries and produced the most noticeable effects," the commission says.

In recent years, China has increased its medical assistance to African countries. China has helped build 30 modern hospitals and dozens of malaria diagnosis labs since 2006.

Since 2010, the National Health and Family Planning Commission has organized experts from different provinces to provide voluntary services in countries including Botswana and Algeria. The medical teams have conducted 1,000 successful operations to cataract sufferers in those countries.

The Chinese government has been hosting dozens of training sessions for medical and workers from such countries since 2003, covering prevention and control of infectious diseases such as malaria and AIDS, health service management, traditional Chinese medicine and nursery skills.

Since the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa early last year, China has sent more than 900 doctors, nurses and public health experts to Africa. They are engaged in the treatment of patients, laboratory testing, training of local public health staff and other assistance, according to the commission.

Chinese health experts have provided training to more than 12,000 medical workers in six countries in Africa, including the Ebola-hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to the commission.

The Chinese government also provided relief supplies worth 750 million yuan ($122 million) in four packages of assistance, including cash, food and disease control equipment.

"In the past, our medical teams abroad focused on providing medical treatment to local people, but in the future they are expected to bring China's successful experiences in public health to Africa and conduct more cooperation with African countries in public health policy and prevention of major infectious diseases," the commission says.

Liang Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, says most countries in Africa are developing countries and they lack basic primary healthcare systems, which greatly limits their capacity to fight major infectious diseases such as Ebola.

"(The lesson of the Ebola outbreak) shows how difficult it is to contain infectious diseases without a sound disease prevention and control system," he says. "It is very difficult to control the epidemic by just curing individual patients."

Chinese medical assistance to Africa used to focus on material assistance such as building hospitals, but in the future it will try to intensify cooperation with African countries on medical research and building its public health system, such as building disease control and prevention centers, he says.

"We are also planning to conduct long-term cooperation with African counterparts in medical science and research," he says.

Wang Liji, deputy director of the international cooperation department of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said that while the nations is sending more medical teams to Africa to provide short-term help, China will also put more emphasis on helping African countries improve their medical technologies and formulate health policies so they are better equipped to fight health risks in the future.

Moreover, more nongovernmental organizations from China are expected to play a bigger role in providing medical assistance to Africa, the commission says.

"Some domestic NGOs are very active and have organized medical volunteers in China to provide short-term medical and health assistance to African countries," an official from the commission says. "I know one of the NGOs has been effectively managing a hospital built with Chinese assistance in Sudan, and it is eager to replicate the model and manage other similar hospitals."

In the past, local governments in developed areas in China have also shown interest in providing support to African countries, the commission says.

Jiangsu province has built several medical centers for minimally invasive and eye surgeries in Guyana and Tanzania, which the two countries lack, the commission says.

"Many Chinese enterprises have also had programs in health, education and poverty relief in African countries, and we are trying to work together with them so they become part of health cooperation between China and Africa and other developing countries," the commission says.

China is also planning to build some Chinese medical centers that represent top Chinese technologies and integrate medical treatment, education and research in certain African countries to meet their needs, the commission says.

Contact the writers though wangxiaotian@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/20/2015 page7)