Ethiopia receives a healing touch

Opened in March 2012, Tirunesh Beijing General Hospital has been offering health services in internal medicine, surgery, HIV screening and others.[Photo/Xinhua]

Nurturing life, risking occupational hazards

Zhang isn't the only parent that's been working in Ethiopia far from home treating Ethiopian patients at the hospital.

Wang Zhijing, 34, a gynecologist and a mother of two children, has been helping new mothers and their newborn babies in the hospital for the past year.

Despite sporadic shortages of medicines and occasions where she will use needles to treat an HIV-infected patient, Wang is unfazed by potential occupational hazards.

The Chinese doctors' presence has impressed many locals, like Dr Lidet Fekadeslassie.

"It used to be the case that we used to give Magnesium Sulfate medicine to pregnant patients with dangerous levels of blood pressure through blood vessels and thighs, but now I've learned that it can also be given safely through Glucose Intravenous infusion," says the 26-year-old Ethiopian medical worker.

Marealem Worku, 35, one of Fekadeslassie's patients, a new mother of twins, said that, with the combined efforts of Wang and Fekadeslassie, she's been receiving excellent treatment she didn't have when she gave birth to her first child at another hospital.

"Before and after I give birth, Wang measured my blood pressure, measured my weight, advised me on post-birth self-conditioning, a help that even my husband has noticed and appreciated," says Worku.

Part of a bigger picture

The 19th Chinese medical team in Ethiopia is not the whole story of Ethiopia-China health cooperation, but is just a part of it.

Earlier this month at a ceremony attended by outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia La Yifan, an agreement was signed to support TBGH's efforts to develop its Trauma Treatment Center and Maternal Child Health Center.

"Even though Ethiopia is a developing country, actually it's a least developed country; its government and its people are concentrated so much on the development of the healthcare industry," says La, explaining why China is committed to helping Ethiopia's health sector.

At present both countries are working on the construction of centers on the hospital's premises, which highlights the growing Sino-Ethiopian medical and health cooperation.

Kebede Worku, state minister of Ethiopia's Ministry of Health, says that stronger Chinese assistance in the health sector is much needed as more and more Ethiopians need treatment in noncommunicable diseases.