Three medical experts from Fujian province dispatched to Senegal in western Africa to help with Ebola prevention in January have returned home.
The trio – Deng Yanqin and Chen Baojian from Fujian disease control center and Wang Meirong from the Fujian Medical School – told of the trials and hardships in an interview with Strait News.
Senegal succeeded in curing an imported Ebola case in September, and was announced as being Ebola free by the World Health Organization. The mission for the three Fujian experts, with an average age of 55, was to increase knowledge of prevention and provide training to local medical personnel in treating the deadly disease which has claimed more than 9,700 lives as of this month.
During their month in the country the trio traveled to 58 of 76 health districts and trained nearly 700 people, including some 100 Chinese.
The successful campaign came with a lot of difficulties, which included poor diet and frequent stomach flu. They also suffered many insect strings.
“The food we had most often was baked bread and cola. I think I drank more cola in the month than I had in the last 50 years,” joked Chen. “And the water quality was bad. We usually carried a big bucket of water by ourselves when travelling, yet we still had diarrhea a lot.”
He also recounted that once they arrived in an unknown town which was found to be controlled by anti-government forces. They were let go after 36 hours during which they only had one meal.
