Caring for health, beyond boundaries

Department of Research, Strategic Studies and International Relations 09-10-2024

Batches of Chinese medical teams have been treating critical cases in African countries for over five decades, Wang Qian and Qin Feng report in Xi’an.

Yu Yongliang, 57, chief physician at the Xi’an Central Hospital in Shaanxi, spent a total of eight years attending medical aid missions in Sudan. [Photo provided to China Daily]

For Yu Yongliang, chief physician at Xi’an Central Hospital in Shaanxi province, Sudan is his second home with a total of eight years’ stay in the country in the course of five medical assistance missions.

“Nearly a third of my career has been spent in Sudan. The recognition of Chinese doctors by the people of Sudan has left me with deep impressions and beautiful memories,” Yu, 57, says.

He still remembers his first mission to Sudan in 2007. After landing at the airport, he was immediately whisked off in a car to a hospital 140 kilometers away where he performed 14 surgeries on his first day.

During his stay in Sudan, Yu treated more than 8,000 outpatient cases and performed over 6,000 surgical procedures. Lots of patients, some facing serious conditions and high volume of surgeries are his impression about Sudan, which has been echoed by his family. His father, his wife and his wife’s uncle and brother, who are all medical workers, collectively carried out 11 missions of medical assistance in Sudan over the past 20 years.

His family is a microcosm of Shaanxi’s medical aid work in Africa. After the first Chinese medical team was dispatched to Sudan in April 1971, batches of doctors and nurses from Shaanxi have embarked on the health-assistance journey, treating the African people with compassion and deft medical skills.

Though countries have borders, medical practitioners transcend them. Over the past 53 years, Shaanxi has dispatched 48 batches totaling 1,298 medical personnel to Sudan and Malawi, carrying out various short-term assistance projects and launching hospital cooperation mechanisms. As of July, its medical teams treated 8.47 million outpatient cases, and performed 253,400 surgeries in the two countries.

During the ongoing 11th mission to Malawi, Wang Yonggang, head of the medical team, recorded many “firsts” since their arrival in January in his WeChat moments.

With their help, Malawi’s first specialized cardiovascular outpatient clinic has been established at Mzuzu Central Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital in Mzuzu city, Malawi. Furthermore, Chinese doctors successfully conducted open liver resection surgery at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi.

By the end of July, Wang’s team had attended to 3,757 emergency outpatient cases, treated 8,293 inpatients, and successfully completed 498 surgeries, filling critical gaps in anesthesia administration and management during gynecological laparoscopic surgerie