File photo shows local medical members receiving training from a medical team of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), to fight against Ebola disease at a hospital in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, Dec. 10, 2014. (Xinhua/Dai Xin)
The African Union commends China for its continued support to Africa's response capability for disease outbreaks such as Ebola, especially through financial and technical assistance to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) has commended China for its continued support to the pan-African bloc's capacity building efforts in the health sector, particularly in the area of enhancing response capability to outbreaks such as Ebola on the continent.
Speaking to Xinhua, the AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, Amira Elfadil, said China has continued to support the AU particularly by providing both financial and technical support to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
"China supports generally around all health issues, but is more focusing on building the capacity of Africa against the outbreaks, the epidemics; and these supports are technical support and financial support," the commissioner said.
"The financial support has been put in place that we are going to build laboratories and these laboratories are going to be part of building the Africa CDC on the premises of the African Union; it is going to be here in Addis Ababa, and the project is going very well," she said.
File photo shows Chinese medical experts teaching workers from the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital how to protect themselves against Ebola disease in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, Sept. 22, 2014. (Xinhua/Huang Xianbin)
"We appreciate very much the support from the government of China; we also appreciate that they are not only supporting us financially but also technically, by linking Africa CDC with China CDC. There is an expert working with us from China CDC. We do appreciate very much this support from the government of China," she said.
"There is an agreement between the AU Commission and the government of China on the continuation of the support technically and financially to make sure Africa has the capacity under the umbrella of the AU to respond to any future epidemic or outbreak on the continent," she said.
As the AU is preparing to convene a Forum on Ebola, whereby it seeks solidarity from member states and other partners to solicit resources for response capability against Ebola and other epidemics on the continent, Elfadil revealed China has already pledged one million U.S. dollars.
In its latest periodic report issued on Friday on the status of the Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Africa CDC announced that the total number of people who died due to the infectious disease has climbed to 2,193. ■
