China has ensured support of the Health Sector in São Tomé e Príncipe for the next 6 years, with medical teams on the ground.
Health Minister Célsio Junqueira and Xu Yingzhen, China’s ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe, signed this week an agreement that allows the intervention of 4 teams of Chinese medical experts, from 2024 to 2029.
Since the resumption of bilateral relations with Sao Tome and Principe in 2016, China has already sent 7 medical teams to ensure assistance to the population of the African country.
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Obstetrics and genecology, general surgery, anaesthesia, acupuncture, and cardiovascular medicine stand out on the list of medical priorities that the Ministry of Health has requested from the Chinese government.
“The Chinese government will send an anesthesiologist to cover the needs and raise the capacity of medical service,” said the Chinese ambassador. The Chinese cooperation is also training 2 local doctors in the specialty of anesthesia, in a partnership with the West China Hospital of Sichuan University.
“At the moment, the country only has one anesthesiologist doctor (Cuban) and some anesthesian technicians who help the block or the operating room,” the Minister of Health Célsio Junqueira described.
General surgery, is another specialty in which “there has been a lot of demand and a great shortage”, the health minister reinforced.
Junqueira highlighted the positive impact of the field work that the Chinese medical team has developed across the country, in the specialty of stomatology. Oral health, especially of children, is at the heart of the interventions of Chinese dentists.
“It is always good to have the People’s Republic of China from both the point of view of medical mission and training,” stressed the Minister of Health.
