Overseas centers to help infectious disease research

China is planning to setup overseas research centers for pathogens and tropical infectious diseases in Africa to improve international collaboration and to practice a preemptive strategy of epidemic control, according to a senior public health official.

The Ebola epidemic is expected to be reined in by June with enough personnel and constant intervention efforts, Gao Fu, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said after returning to China last month from a two-month Ebola deployment in worst-hit Sierra Leone.

"China should learn from developed countries setting up their own permanent research centers in Africa, particularly for special pathogens like Ebola, under a preemptive strategy for epidemic control," he said.