Chinese doctors head for Zimbabwe to aid fight against COVID-19

CHANGSHA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China has sent a team of 12 medical experts to Zimbabwe to help with the African country's fight against COVID-19.

On Monday morning, the experts from Hunan Province left Changsha, the provincial capital, along with medical supplies donated by the provincial government, which include ventilators, nucleic acid testing kits, face masks and medical protective suits.

Zhu Yimin, deputy director of the provincial health commission, said Zimbabwe and some other African countries had lent a hand to China during the period when China was hard hit by COVID-19. The Chinese medical experts are expected to help Zimbabwe fight against the epidemic.

The 12 experts are from respiratory departments, infectious disease departments, and the fields of intensive medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, infection control, public health and nursing. Most of them have frontline experience in the prevention and control of COVID-19.

The medical team will exchange experience in epidemic control and prevention with their counterparts in Zimbabwe, and provide prevention and treatment training to local medics. They will also provide guidance and assistance to other Chinese medical teams in Africa via video conferences.

"The medical expert team will propose a professional scheme that is suitable for Zimbabwe after fully grasping the local situation of the virus," said Hu Chengping, a 63-year-old professor of respiratory diseases and critical illness.

"China adopts a combination of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and western medicine, which is effective in alleviating patients' symptoms and boosting their confidence," said Sun Shuang, the only TCM expert of the team.

"TCM is a traditional Chinese culture, and Zimbabwe also has its traditional treatment methods," Sun added. "I hope to encourage them to explore how their traditional treatment methods can play a role in the treatment of COVID-19 based on their own culture."

Since Hunan sent the first medical team to Zimbabwe in 1985, as part of the Chinese aids for the country, the province has sent a total of 17 groups of 166 medical workers to Zimbabwe to provide medical services to local people.