A Chinese doctor assists local doctors in rehabilitation training at the Maputo Military Hospital in Mozambique on Dec. 5, 2017. The Chinese medical team was scheduled to stay for two months to help local doctors learn the usage of new medical devices. (XINHUA)

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Early this year, China and the World Health Organization signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to enhance cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative to improve the health of the people along the routes, which in turn serves as a new channel for strengthening China’s medical cooperation with Africa.

Indeed, since the announcement of the 10 major China-Africa cooperation plans in 2015 at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China’s medical assistance to Africa has entered the fast lane of innovation and development, and the exploration of aid forms has been unprecedentedly active. In sum, China’s humanitarian assistance to Africa has shown the following characteristics in recent years.

 

Broad range of services
Sending medical teams to the African continent remains China’s most important form of medical aid. It is the oldest, largest and most influential form of assistance among all types of Chinese medical aid to Africa. According to officials at the National Health Commission, since the first Chinese medical team was sent to Algeria in 1963, China has sent more than 24,000 experts and medical personnel to a total of 66 nations and regions, treating about 270 million patients. In 2017, China sent medical teams to 51 nations and regions, 43 of which are in Africa. 

In order to improve medical services, about 80 percent of medical workers are from tertiary Chinese hospitals. Also, to draw more high-quality medical personnel to participate in foreign aid, China has shortened the tenure for medical staff to one or two years rather than the previous three years in non-English speaking countries. Famous experts are permitted to sign on for tenures as short as three months to efficiently harness the use of high-quality Chinese medical resources.
With the deepening of China-Africa relations and the changes of health conditions in African countries, the emerging form of assistance is enriching and supplementing the traditional assistance of medical teams.

To alleviate the shortage of medical and health facilities in African countries, China assisted in the construction of about 80 medical facilities, including general hospitals, mobile hospitals, health centers, specialist clinics, and traditional Chinese medicine centers from 2010 to 2012, according to data from China’s Foreign Aid White Paper (2014). At the Second Ministerial Forum of China-Africa Health Development in 2015, China pledged to establish 100 health facilities, including hospitals and clinics in the developing countries, including African nations.

In addition, China has established mature cooperation mechanisms between medical institutions to form a hospital-to-hospital or institution-to-institution relationship to promote the exchange of experts, training courses, as well as technology exchange and transfer.

Finally, China has launched targeted health aid programs, such as the Brightness Trip program that help recipient countries to treat eye diseases. According to the 2014 White Paper, the first Chinese Brightness Trip medical team arrived in Africa in November 2010, and carried out operations for more than 1,000 cataract patients in such countries as Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Sudan. Since then, the project has given sight and clear vision to millions of cataract patients across the African continent. 

 

Specialized hospitals, clinics
Over the years, Chinese medical teams have included not only physicians, surgeons, gynecologists and pediatricians but also other experts who specialize in treating typical African diseases. Since 2007, China has built more than 30 malaria prevention and control centers in Africa, donated medical devices and drugs, and performed high-tech diagnostics for hundreds of millions of African malaria patients, putting an end to the history that once a patient has a fever, he or she will be treated with malaria drugs.

In 2014, the Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at Guangdong People’s Hospital began collaboration with the Ghanaian government to establish a West Africa Heart Center, with a focus on the growing problem of cardiovascular disease in West Africa. First-class Chinese cardiovascular specialists were dispatched to Ghana to participate in medical aid, which has brought hope to the Ghanan people as well as the latest knowledge and technology for cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment. Similarly, in Mauritania, where eye diseases are prevalent, China helped set up a China-Mauritian Eye Center, committed to treating patients with eye diseases.

Under the framework of hospital-to-hospital relationship, Chinese hospitals have been working closely their counterparts in Africa to strengthen the capacity of clinical specialists in Africa. In 2016, Xiangya Hospital Central South University and Zimbabwe’s largest public hospital Parirenyatawa signed a counterpart cooperation project, starting a three-year specialized urinary cooperation through the establishment of a Urological Endoscopic Medical Center in Zimbabwe, driving the research of urological and endoscopy surgery in Africa. Chinese medical teams in Mali, Tanzania and other countries have also set up endoscopy centers, helping Africa embrace an era of minimally invasive surgeries to reduce surgical trauma and improve the quality of medical treatment.

China’s non-governmental organizations have also been participating in medical assistance to Africa, meeting local residents’ needs for healthcare while promoting public health development in Africa. For example, the China-Sudan Friendship Hospital for Maternity and Childcare in Abu Ushar area was built with the help of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation in 2011 for the purpose of reducing maternity mortality in Sudan.

 

Improving public health
As the health conditions of African countries improve along with the health infrastructure, China’s medical assistance to Africa has gradually shifted from a focus on diseases to holistic emphasis on health. In addition to the China-African Public Health Cooperation Plan, the Second Ministerial Forum of China-Africa Health Development was held under the theme of “Promoting the access of healthcare service in Africa: Improving China-Africa’s Cooperation in Public Health in post-Ebola era,” signifying the start of China-African collaboration on universal health coverage.

China has aided African countries in the fight against deadly infectious diseases and public health hazards, such as Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis, improving Africa’s capacity to respond to public health emergencies. In the battle against ebola in Africa, China has contributed its own strength and wisdom to the prevention and control of Ebola by dispatching elite medical teams and strengthening disease research. To enable easier virus detection, China helped set up mobile laboratories in Africa, saving precious time for the treatment of Ebola patients.

China has also made efforts to improve water cleanness in Africa. China has helped African countries drill wells on dry land and fetch clean drinking water, which greatly reduces water-borne infectious diseases, such as cholera and improves public health. China is also working to improve the sanitation situation for African countries. In Mauritania, China has offered financial assistance for the construction of drainage channels in low-lying areas, alleviating urban waterlogging, reducing water accumulation in urban areas, and effectively reducing mosquito breeding and disease transmission.

 

Smart medical aid network
The development of network communication technology has brought China and Africa closer together. The internet has diversified the channels of Chinese medical resource distribution and Africa has gained a smarter, healthier and safer platform for medical treatment.

In 2017, Henan Provincial People’s Hospital set up a pathology remote consultation center in Ethiopian Black Lion Hospital, enabling intercontinental remote consultation. The center has compensated for the shortage of Ethiopian pathology doctors and opened up a new intelligent form of medical aid. Through this online platform, Ethiopian doctors can upload complicated pathological specimens to the system any time and invite Chinese experts to give consultation, so that patients in Africa could receive high-quality diagnosis and treatment from Chinese experts.

In order to give full play to the role of network communication technology in remote diagnosis and treatment, China is now building a resource platform for remote medical assistance. Recently, China donated sets of remote medical equipment to Zambia to the University of Zambia Teaching Hospital, the Livingston General Hospital and the Ndola Central Hospital. With the aid of new telemedicine equipment, doctors from the two sides can realize remote consultation and instant interaction, which is conducive to medical service modernization in Zambia.

 

 
Hu Mei is an associate professor from the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University.

（edited by YANG XUE）