The Chinese Government has continuously strengthened its ties with Africa, especially on public health cooperation as more Chinese medical experts are saving millions of Africans from deadly diseases such as the Ebola Virus.
Aside from providing medical assistance, the Chinese Government has also provided medical training to thousands of African medical practitioners.
The strong China-Africa cooperation on public health can also be construed on the numerous Chinese medical missions across Africa ever since in the past. Since its first medical mission in Algeria in 1963, the Chinese Government has been sending more than 21,000 Chinese medical practitioners to more than 50 African countries for medical missions. It has served more than 220-million Africans on medical assistance as well as trained more than 80,000 African medical practitioners.
For the past three years, China has led and initiated the Brightness Action Campaign wherein it provides free treatment among Africans who have problems with cataracts. The program has reached over forty (40) African nations and has provided treatments and recovery to more than 4,000 African locals with cataracts.
The Chinese Government has also strong ophthalmology cooperation centers in four (4) African nations which included training of 21,000 ophthalmology African doctors and other medical staff.
In Congo, the Chinese Government has been providing medical assistance to the China-Republic of Congo Friendship Hospital which is located at Congo's capital, Brazzaville.
In Botswana, Chinese doctors performed the first ever radio cephalic arteriovenous fistula surgery in Gaborone. To recall, the Chinese medical team also performed the first painless gastroscopy in South Sudan in July 2017.
The Chinese Government is also active in anti-HIV programs in Africa. First Lady of the Peoples' Republic of China recently organized the China-Africa AIDS Prevention and Control Conference. In the Conference, the Chinese government promised that China will provide help and assistance to African countries in a 3-year adolescent preventive and community health program. This is to help African nations in raising awareness about HIV and to contribute in providing sustainable goals with the aim of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Government and Ghana Government are in the works of co-producing a film entitled "Ebola." The film will depict a true story of medical cooperation in fighting the deadly Ebola Virus. It will tell the experiences of the Chinese medical team and how the team provided medical assistance to various areas of Western Africa after 2014's Ebola outbreak.
