By Allieu SahidTunkara
Chinese ambassador to Sierra Leone has told a press conference at the Chinese Embassy in Freetown that his country will provide US$82 million and other logistics to Ebola affected countries in the Mano River Union.
Zhao Yanbo disclosed that on the 24 October this year the Chinese President, I Jinping, announced in Beijing in a meeting with Tanzanian President JakayaKikwete that his government would provide much more assistance to the Ebola affected region in Africa.
He said there was no indication that the Ebola situation was getting better and that it was in that direction that the Chinese government would offer ambulances, motor cycles, pick-up trucks among others. He further said that China would soon deploy public health experts to share Chinese experience in epidemic control and to help train local health workers.
The ambassador also said that, as part of its continued assistance to the Ebola fight, China would also offer US$6 million to the UN Ebola Response Multi-partner Trust Fund to support UNMEER in containing Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.”
“China is the first country to provide assistance to Sierra Leone when the Ebola broke out and this is the fourth great assistance China will be offering to the country” he said, adding that they would soon launch the China-African Public Health Cooperation plan which would entail holding 12 seminars on public health and epidemic control for the three Ebola-stricken countries.
In his contribution, the Deputy Director-General of the China Centre for Disease Control, Mr. Gao Fu, said that within six months the Ebola virus would be defeated, adding that the cooperation of all was required. Mr. Fu said that at the initial stage, the virus was neglected which led to its spread, adding that the 63 Chinese health staff deployed in Sierra Leone would work very hard to cut off the transmission chain of the disease.
“In the first half of the game, we lost and that is why you are see the virus in the United States. If we fail to stop it in the second half the Ebola Virus Disease will spread to China,” he said.
The head of the Chinese medical team, Mr. Jiusong, said that they had been here for the past six weeks working very hard and expressed hope that someday the country would get back to normal. He said they had trained some local health officials, adding that they were working very hard to contain the Ebola virus.
“We are hopeful that with the concerted effort of all and sundry, we will defeat the virus”, he said.
© Politico 30/10/14
