Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi will today join China’s Health Minister, Dr Lin Bin, in donating state-of-the-art X-ray equipment at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital.
Motsoaledi and Lin yesterday co-chaired the 3rd China-Africa ministerial health conference in Pretoria, where 200 delegates from China and various African countries gathered.
According to Motsoaledi, up to eight bilateral agreements were signed between China and African countries in a bid to improve the healthcare system.
Earlier in the day, Motsolaedi said while there were massive achievements in prolonging lives through rollout of ARV treatment, the African continent still had a long way to go in combating HIV/Aids.
Motsoaledi said the heightened emphasis on prevention, treatment and care over the last decade had seen the rate of new HIV infections slowing down. “More infected people are receiving antiretroviral drugs We must move forward to implement some of our flagship projects, including the production of generic drugs for HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.”
He added despite the continent joining forces in promoting excellence in healthcare, Africa could not afford complacency.
“Destiny has brought us to this crossroad where we as Africans can no longer afford the time for missed opportunities.
“We must move only in one direction, and that is upwards. We must do so with the resolute determination to succeed.”
Motsoaledi pointed out the one area that vividly summed up Africa’s development challenges was health.
“As we meet today, new diseases have emerged at unprecedented rates, while old diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis have made aggressive comebacks.”
He said strong health systems were important to provide effective measures to contain and eradicate the infectious diseases of old, and provide the first line of defence against emerging pandemics.
Meanwhile, Lin said China had already established 20 hospital programmes on the continent, which included introducing heart and eye care centres, as well as traditional Chinese medicine centres.
She said up to 1 000 medical workers from the Asian country worked in various countries. Motsoaledi applauded South Africa’s strong relations with China and said the conference should be used to reflect on improving the livelihoods of its people.