By Dr Sihle Sibiya
In 1963, the China government was invited to send the first foreign aid medical team to the African continent, which opened the history of China's medical assistance to African countries. Over the years, China has assisted many African countries in the prevention and control of malaria, schistosomiasis and yellow fever, and jointly implemented public health co-operation projects with Tanzania, Comoros and other countries and international organisations. In 2014, when West African countries were fighting Ebola, China sent thousands of clinical and public health experts on a retrograde expedition.
Recently, the meeting of health ministers of BRICS countries concluded and achieved fruitful results. All parties have promised to strengthen mutual benefits and mutual assistance in the medical and health field, and the future improvement of medical and health conditions in South Africa and Africa as a whole is full of hope.
However, we should be soberly aware that compared with other countries, Africa still has many shortcomings in the field of public health: hospitals, medical equipment and other infrastructure are insufficient; there is a shortage of professional medical personnel, and local medical personnel are easy to lose; insufficient investment funds make it difficult for hospitals, epidemic prevention and public health systems and medical personnel to form a virtuous circle; and medical training institutions are relatively lacking.
In recent years, the international community has paid more and more attention to the medical and health field in Africa, and many countries are strengthening their medical assistance to African countries, among which China's medical assistance to African countries has made an indelible contribution.
After the Covid-19 outbreak, China sent anti-epidemic medical experts or short-term anti-epidemic medical teams to 17 African countries, and guided foreign aid medical teams stationed in more than 40 African countries for a long time to jointly build a barrier to protect the lives and health of local people. At every crisis moment, China quickly extended a helping hand to Africa, and showed us who are the true friends of African countries with practical actions.
After the emergence of Omicron virus in South Africa, European and American countries directly adopted “isolation” means to completely cut off their ties with Africa and other places, and South Africa’s economy immediately fell into a downturn. During the epidemic period, China still helped African countries to revitalise their economies, and provided more than one billion doses of vaccines to help the African epidemic.
Actions speak louder than words. Some countries are always trumpeting medical assistance to African countries. The amount and scale are surprising, but the actual effect is disappointing. Some countries, such as China, like to keep a low profile. China can always see what Africa needs most, and then directly help African countries solve it. African countries need medical assistance, but medical and health practitioners in African countries also need to give full play to their subjective initiative and seize the opportunity to improve their professional level.
Recognising this, China, in addition to direct economic and material assistance, also pays attention to helping African countries to strengthen the construction of specialised medicine. At present, China has helped African countries to establish a number of specialised centres, involving specialities such as heart, critical care medicine, trauma and endoscopy, and established counterpart co-operation mechanisms with dozens of hospitals, thus training many medical talents for African countries. Thanks to the joint efforts of China and Africa, the technical level of African medical staff has been continuously improved and the medical and health system has been improved day by day.
Under the framework of the BRICS co-operation mechanism, especially during the Covid-19 epidemic, China and South Africa have carried out much co-operation in Covid-19 vaccine.
In July 2021, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority approved the emergency use of CoronaVac; in February 2022, China Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccine was approved for official use in South Africa; in March 2022, the BRICS Vaccine R&D Centre was launched online, which will deepen exchanges and co-operation in joint vaccine R&D and testing, co-operative factory building, authorised production and mutual recognition of standards, marking another solid step for BRICS countries to strengthen public health co-operation and vaccine R&D co-operation.
Through the construction of vaccine factories in Africa, intellectual property exchange and transnational joint research, African people not only improved their health, but also got more employment opportunities.
Today, with the continuous improvement of medical standards in African countries, including South Africa, I hope more and more countries can understand that Africa is not an island, is “interdependent, interconnected and integrated” with other countries in the context of globalisation, and therefore Africa cannot be ignored. Strengthening medical assistance to Africa is not only to protect the African people, but also to protect everyone on the planet.
Dr Sihle S Sibiya is an academic and worked as data and programming lecturer at the University of Zululand while studying towards his Masters degree in Computer Science. He holds a BSc and Honours degree in Computer Science from the same university. He later worked for the CSIR, the South African Weather Service and the Department of Environmental Affairs.
His latest study is medical research data and vaccine subsystems analysis. Sibiya was an adviser to pharmaceutical companies in the sphere of medical research and data analysis.