China has recently declared as part of its new health commitments to provide Africa with the popular anti-malaria medication, Artemisinin, for five million people. This was revealed in an interactive session with Chinese health officials in Beijing as they hosted African journalists from the 2017 China Africa Press Centre programme.
 
At the meeting which took place at the Health Ministry, the Deputy Director General of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Mr Feng Yong, told journalists that through its China Africa Public Health Cooperation Project, China will also assist Africa to build health systems and policies in the areas of; disease surveillance, strengthening of prevention and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases, improvement of maternal and child healthcare and reproductive health.
 
China is also prepared to support cooperation between 20 hospitals of China and Africa, providing training for doctors, nurses, public health workers and administrative personnel.
 
Yong who noted that China had been sending medical teams to Africa since 1963, revealed free surgeries carried out by medical teams from China in Africa. “There have been free cataract surgery in Botswana, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Ghana, Morocco, Burundi and Sierra Leone since 2014,” he indicated. He also added that China will offer scholarships in the sector to more than 800 people in average annually.
 
Similarly, the country is also committed in supporting building of an African Union Disease Control Centre and regional medical research centres with reinforced laboratory and diagnostic capacities. The Deputy Director General said that China was presently in dialogue with Africa Union (AU) officials at headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to establish African Centre for Disease Control (ACDC) in Addis, with sub regional centres in Nigeria, Zambia, Egypt, and Gabon with the final outcome of the decision to be made by AU.
 
“We are going to continue to support Malaria control in Africa and encourage Chinese investors to invest in African countries. This is our commitment to African countries,” Yong said.
 
Yong has also noted in his presentation that China will continue to send medical teams to Africa, including short term teams consisting of clinical experts and other short term free medical services. China will support the investment by Chinese medical and health product industries in Africa, while encouraging Chinese enterprises to jointly operate hospitals in Africa, improve health infrastructure through construction, renovation and equipping of medical facilities, strengthen high level dialogue in health and incorporate the Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Cooperation as an official sub-forum under the framework of FOCAC.
 
Read more at http://leadership.ng/2017/05/18/china-offers-anti-malaria-five-million-a...