Fighting disease in Africa will get a boost

China plans to intensify cooperation with African countries on public health to help fight infectious diseases, a senior health official said on Friday.

China will support the building of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and help African countries to establish public health systems that suit their own national conditions and development, Cui Li, deputy head of the National Health Commission, said at the High-Level Meeting on China-Africa Health Cooperation, which opened on Friday in Beijing.

In addition, China will accelerate carrying out public health projects it has committed to in Africa, including a research center for control and prevention of tropical diseases in Sierra Leone, and a reference lab in Liberia with elevated ability to test for and diagnose infectious diseases, she said.