Dignitaries from Cameroon and China commemorated the 40^th anniversary of medical missions with calls to strengthen efforts.

Cameroon’s government and the People’s Republic of China yesterday June 8, 2015 commemorated 40 years of mutually beneficial cooperation in the health sector.

As authorities from both countries gathered at a significant place in their relationship; the Yaounde Gyneaco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital (HGOPY), which is one of the jewels in the Sino-Cameroon cooperation that was constructed, equipped by the People’s Republic of China and inaugurated on March 28, 2002, Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda and the  Vice President of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the Shanxi Province, Professor Wei Xiaochun on behalf of their governments, lauded the win-win cooperation that exists between both countries and promised to strengthen efforts for the wellbeing and better healthcare for the population.

The event was an ideal opportunity for Professor Wei Xiaochun to offer laboratory equipment to the Yaounde Gynaeco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital worth some FCFA 30 million. According to the Director General of HGOPY, Professor Angwafo III Fru, the gifts, in the form of reagents, will help the hospital carry out basic tests such as complete blood counts, biochemistry profile liver and kidney functioning as well as anaesthetic medications which will help when there is stock shortage in the national territory.

To also mark 40 years of fruitful cooperation, André Mama Fouda and Wei Xiaochun signed a new project dubbed “Projet Lumière” (the light project) which is a community health project to treat people suffering from neglected tropical diseases such as cataract. According to the agreement, before the end of this year, people suffering from cataract will be freely treated either at the HGOPY or the Mbalmayo District Hospital in the Centre Region.

As Cameroon and the People’s Republic of China commemorate not only an exemplary but promising cooperation, the General Chief of the Medical Mission from China, Pu Lianmin noted that they are at the 17^th medical mission of Chinese health experts from China to Cameroon. While noting that the 17^th medical mission from China is a dynamic group which is particularly result orientated, Pu Lianmin said the 17^th mission just like the others will serve Cameroonians with all their heart, popularise Chinese medical method, all in a bid to improve healthcare given to Cameroonians.

Since 1975 when the first Chinese medical team arrived Cameroon, some 582 Chinese medical experts from the Shanxi Province have been received in different hospitals in the country. While at HGOPY, André Mama Fouda, together with the Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon, Wei Wenhua, and a delegation of medical staff from China and Cameroon visited various wards in the hospital to see for themselves the know-how of the Chinese medical mission.

The cooperation between Cameroon and the People’s Republic of China entails the exchange of human resources, material resources, research, training, consumables, drugs, infrastructural gifts as well as intimate relationship certain hospitals in Cameroon share with the Mother and Child Hospitals of Shanxi, which is one of the 13 best hospitals in China and from where medical experts are sent to Cameroon. The way forward is to strengthen the mutually beneficial cooperation by building stronger ties between health staff for the wellbeing of the population.