China/AU talk hi-tech disease control centre

Mpho Mokwape | Friday May 12, 2017 12:29

The talks reportedly comes after the Asian giant realised that Africa’s health system needs strengthening in order to be able to deal with the inevitable especially following the deadly Ebola outbreak that gripped the continent’s western region and killed many people.

In a recent media briefing the Department of International Cooperation on National Health and Family Planning Commission’s deputy director general Yong Feng said China was committed to helping the continent strengthen its health system hence its proposal to build the centre. “Most African countries are still lagging behind in the health system and especially when it comes to the controlling and containing of disease outbreaks. China is now willing to build a centre as a measure of allowing swift response and also dealing with other issues related to health,” he said.

Yong  explained that the centre will act as a bridge between all African countries in terms of disease control, research and testing of samples over a short period of time.

He said China has the capacity to improve the health system in Africa and that it was entirely up to the AU to decide a way forward for the building of the centre which is expected to be completed in the next three years at the AU’s headquarters in Ethiopia. “The centre will be the headquarters, like as we are also proposing five regional offices that will close the gap,” Yong said. On the budget for the centre and its daily activities once it’s up and running, hemaintained there will be no budget limit as a way of making sure that the centre survives and serves the continent accordingly.

He said it was a welcome development for the continent since extensive research on diseases, testing of samples and controlling any outbreak will be done swiftly as compared to having to send the samples far.

Meanwhile on the health aid Yong said China would continue with its aid, which includes the deployment of medical teams in most African countries and free cataract surgery that Botswana has been one of the beneficiaries. “We will continue to lend a helping hand to African countries for most to achieve their millennium development goals. China has already built about 38 health facilities in Africa with many to follow,” he said.

Yong noted that $2 billion that China has set aside to help developing countries, 80% will go to Africa and will be spent in the next coming years while scholarships across different fields of study and training of personnel continue to be high on the agenda.

He emphasised that the fight to eradicate malaria, to improve the maternal health in most countries have been top of the agenda and will continue. Quizzed on the importation of fake drugs from overseas countries including China, Yong said the issue was a complex one that needed to be tackled by individual countries.

“At the moment we are aware that most countries have been overwhelmed by the influx of fake drugs but each country needs to have measures and systems in place to address the issue, the Government of each country should do their best to make sure that no fake drugs enter their country including those coming from here,” he said.

*Mpho Mokwape is in Beijing, China on the ongoing Fourth China Africa Press Centre Programme, where 27 African journalists are to experience and explore the oriental giant.