Healthcare Without Borders

Chinese doctors share their experience on the battle against COVID-19 with Zimbabwean and Equatorial Guinean peers

- Xia Yuanyuan

Hu Yue was surprised to meet a Chinese speaking doctor in a sub-urban hospital in Zimbabwe. As a member of the AntiCOVID-19 Medical Expert Team to Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, organized by China’s Hunan Province, Hu didn’t think she would hear her own language at Mahusekwa Hospital, (also known as China-Zimbabwe Friendship Hospital) in Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe.

As they say, it’s a small world - the Zimbabwean doctor turned out to be a former student who had studied for six years at Xiangya School of Medicine at Central South University, Hunan, where Hu is deputy director of ICU in the Third Xiangya Hospital of the university.

Hu told ChinAfrica it was especially rewarding to see a doctor trained in China putting her skills to work back in her home country, particularly while the COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping across the globe.

During their one-month trip to the two African countries in May, the 12-member medical team of experts from respiratory departments, infectious disease departments, and the fields of intensive medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, infection control, public health and nursing cooperated with local medical workers on treatment plans and guided local laboratories to improve their nucleic acid testing capabilities.

Disease control

The team members quickly determined the major area of concern after visiting Wilkins Hospital, Parirenyatwa Hospital and other provincial hospitals, based on their experience as frontline doctors accumulated through thousands of COVID-19 cases in China.