Algeria appreciative of China's long-lasting medical assistance

A non-profit hospital being built in Algeria is expected to save the lives of many local children suffering congenital heart diseases.

The latest project in the decades-long China-Algeria medical cooperation, the hospital is being jointly built by Taida International Cardiovascular Hospital, based in Tianjin, China, and an investment company in Algeria. It is expected to help 400 children a year.

Taida will help design the hospital and provide consultation and training for the hospital's medical staff, according to Liu Xiaocheng, president of Taida International Cardiovascular Hospital.

Attending a signing ceremony on Dec 1 in the Algerian capital Algiers, Abdelmalek Boudiaf, Algeria's minister of health, population and hospital reform, said his country appreciates the medical assistance that China has provided since the 1960s.

China announced its acknowledgement of Algeria in September 1958, just three days after the interim Algerian government was founded, and on Dec 20 that year officially established diplomatic relations.

Responding to an invitation from Algeria, China sent a 24-member medical assistance team to the African country in 1963, which marked the beginning of China's medical assistance to the continent.

Since then, Chinese medical assistance teams have provided more than 25 million clinical treatments and treated more than 1.7 million hospitalized patients in Algeria over the past 52 years, according to Cheng Zhichen, chief of the 24th batch of the Chinese medical assistance team to Algeria.

Chinese medical workers have successfully carried out highly complicated surgery for the locals at simply-equipped hospitals in the past, which has earned them the gratitude of the Algerian people, he said.

"I am glad our efforts have been acknowledged by the local people," said Xu Changzhen, a gynecologist from Hubei province and a member of China's medical assistance team for Algeria. "As a Chinese doctor, I will try my best to treat every patient."

Since 1993, when she first set foot in Algeria, Xu has been dispatched by the government four times to the country and worked in Algeria for a total of seven years.

Beside Algeria, China has also sent medical assistance teams to many other African countries.

China has sent about 20,000 medical staff to African nations, providing treatment to hundreds of millions of patients and helped train a large number of medical staff for these countries, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, China's top health authority.

Medical cooperation between China and Africa is the one of the most successful and important areas of collaboration between the two sides, and it will intensify in the future to benefit more people, the commission said.