MONROVIA (Reuters) - About 160
Chinese health workers arrived on Saturday in Liberia, where they are
due to staff a new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other
foreign interventions, is being built and fully run by Chinese
personnel.
China, Africa's biggest trade partner, had come under fire for the level
of its response to the Ebola crisis. But it said this week it would
send 1,000 personnel to help fight an outbreak that has killed over
5,000 people in West Africa.
"Up to now in Liberia, China is the only country which
provides not only the construction of an ETU (Ebola treatment unit), but
also the running and operation and the staffing of an ETU," Chinese
Ambassador Zhang Yue told Reuters.
The United States has pledged more money and personnel
than any other nation pitching in to fight the worst Ebola outbreak on
record. But its response is based on building clinics and training
locals to run them.
Yue said the new team in Liberia included a mix of doctors, nurses, technicians and engineers.
"They experienced SARS (severe acute respiratory
syndrome). They are very knowledgeable in this area," he said, referring
to the contagious illness that was first identified in China in 2002
and killed several hundred people across the world.
On arrival,
the Chinese health workers had their temperature taken and were made to
wash their hands, a ritual adopted across the region as part of efforts
to stem the disease.
Yue said the establishment of the clinic in Liberia brought
China's contribution to the anti-Ebola effort in the country to $122
million.
Before
China's pledge to send 1,000 personnel, Cuba was the largest
contributor of medical contingents to the crisis.
Both nations will see their teams work closely alongside
the United States, which is providing much of the infrastructure of the
international response.