By Abu Bakarr Kargbo
The 23rd Batch of the Chinese Medical Team on Sunday took the malaria treatment and prevention methods to mining communities in Kono District, Eastern Sierra Leone. The team left its comfort zone in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital to travel about 300 kilometers to Bandafageh Section in the Nimikoro Chiefdom, Kono District where provided services to 28 Chinese and about 130 local Sierra Leonean employees.
Due to the lack of malaria prevention and control knowledge, several employees have been suffering from malaria recently in most remote communities, especially in mining communities where there are often traumatic events in mining work and access to medical services is far from their reach.
It is against this backdrop the Chinese Medical Team deemed it particularly important to popularize some common sense of trauma first aid to mining company employees.
Professor Xie Jingjing of the Medical Team gave a lecture on the prevention and treatment of malaria, whilst Professor Tang Zhengwu gave a lecture on the operation drill of common on-site first-aid techniques.
Through the popularization of medical knowledge, the staff felt that they had gained a lot. The Chinese Medical Team in Sierra Leone has carried out many free clinics for Chinese enterprises and local residents in the country, which has achieved very good results and promised to continue its good humanitarian services.
It could be recalled that the Chinese medical team in Sierra Leone provided training on malaria prevention and treatment for medical staff at the China-Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital. The training provided by the Chinese doctors took the form of a PowerPoint presentation, video documentary, and practical work, and was aimed at boosting their counterparts’ capacity of dealing with the epidemic disease.
Also, residents within the Hastings, Jui, Waterloo, Bureh, York, Wellington, and Tombo Communities benefited from First Aid Training provided by the Chinese Medics. The training came in the wake of the realization that most Sierra Leoneans don’t know how to perform emergency first aid treatment in an emergency situation which sometimes leads to early deaths.
The 23rd batch Chinese medical expert team is currently scoring major successes in developing Sierra Leone’s health sector. Since its arrival in the West African nation, the Chinese medics have been widely acclaimed by Sierra Leone’s government and people for playing key roles in treating cases like malaria, typhoid fever, diarrhea, and other contagious diseases.
