Ebola battle has benefits for ongoing disease fight

Facility provided to help battle epidemic will be used to deal with further outbreaks

Diseases come and go in Africa, but China's help in fighting them continues.

An example of this is the public health center it launched in Sierra Leone during West Africa's Ebola crisis in 2014.

Although Ebola has now been contained, the China-built public health center - the only one in the country so far - is being made permanent to support epidemic control, a senior health official tells China Daily.

Wang Yu, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, says five Chinese CDC specialists now work at the facility, located in Freetown, the capital.

"The plan is to recruit more Chinese doctors," he says.

The center's work includes surveillance and detection, lab work and regular immunization against infectious diseases.

Thomas Samba, a regional director of Sierra Leone's National Public Health Agency, says that with China's help the nation can train more public health workers and be better equipped to defend itself if there is a return of Ebola or any other infectious diseases.

During the 2014 outbreak, China sent aid worth $120 million and dispatched more than 1,200 medical workers, including public health specialists, to 13 affected countries, including Sierra Leone, to help combat Ebola.

Wang, of China's CDC, says "it's important to empower Africa" and to let it accumulate local capability, because there's no telling when Ebola or another infectious disease might strike.

Samba says there was a lack of public health services before the Ebola outbreak. In a country of 7 million people, there are only 20 to 30 public health specialists, nearly all trained abroad, although China is helping to improve the situation.

"The ideas and procedures used to contain Ebola fit all other emerging pathogens as well," Samba says. "Capacity-building in public health is a major part of our nation's recovery plan."

According to Wang, the West African countries hit hard by Ebola - which killed more than 11,000 people in the region - have all seen their development processes faltering, if not entirely halted.

"Any small help can make a whole world of difference," he says.

After the Ebola crisis, China made an offer to the African Union to help build a disease control and prevention center in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, where the organization has its headquarters.

The center will cover 54 countries in Africa, many of which have no functional public health system, he says.

"It's a project endorsed by the presidents of China and the US and is being carried out by personnel from both countries," Wang says.

More Chinese specialists will soon be commissioned to aid the operation of the African Union's CDC.

China helps itself by helping others, says Gao Fu, deputy director of the China CDC. "Our experience in Africa helps us make our own disease prevention more effective."

Gao has also urged the Chinese government to build a new lab of the highest biosafety level, known as P4, in North China.

shanjuan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/28/2016 page3)