Team of physicians departs this week with domestic vaccine for killer disease?A team of Chinese health experts will depart for the Democratic Republic of Congo this week to help fight an Ebola outbreak in the west central African nation.Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the experts will attempt to use a vaccine developed by China to help combat the disease.The team, comprising four public health experts from the Chinese CDC and seven from other institutes, will evaluate the situation on the ground and provide support to counterparts in Congo, including virus testing, he said.They will stay in Congo for a month according to the initial plan, Gao said. The places where outbreaks occurred are far away from the capital, and transport is inconvenient. We are still discussing the details of our work there.So in the initial period of the stay the team members will try to get familiar with the situation, he said. We will seek to use the Chinese developed vaccine there to help with control and prevention of the disease, but for the present the vaccines will likely only cover Chinese living in Congo.It's also a pre-emptive intervention for China, as infectious diseases know no national borders, he said.The vaccine, jointly developed by the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Cansinobio, a Chinese company involved in human vaccine development and production, was approved by China's top drug regulator in October.This made China the third country, after the United States and Russia, with a vaccine available to combat Ebola, according to the State Drug Administration.The vaccine-recombinant Ebola virus disease vaccine (Adenovirus type 5 vector)-is available in powder and, compared with liquid vaccines in the other two countries, is more stable, which is an advantage in transportation and use in tropical areas such as Africa, the administration said.Through Saturday, 53 confirmed or suspected Ebola cases had been reported since the most recent outbreak began on April 4. The World Health Organization said 25 people have died so far.Health experts in Congo have located more than 1,000 people who have had contact with the infected patients, and more than 680 have received Ebola vaccinations, the Associated Press reported.Gao said vaccines developed by a US company are being used in Congo.Ebola is a severe illness in humans, with fatality rates that have varied from 25 percent to 90 percent in past outbreaks, according to the WHO.There are currently no licensed treatments available for Ebola, although multiple experimental therapies are being developed.The largest outbreaks ever occurred in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea between 2014 and 2016, causing more than 11,300 deaths in the three West African countries, according to the WHO.China delivered the largest scale public health assistance in history to other countries following the outbreaks, including sending more than 1,000 medical and public health experts to the countries to help fight the disease. It provided 750 million yuan ($117 million) in assistance, according to the Foreign Ministry.Gao, from the Chinese CDC, said China will intensify cooperation with African nations to help them better cope with infectious disease prevention and control.We will fulfill our pledge to support the building of a center for disease control and prevention in Africa, including training experts in Africa, he said. We will help build a center on prevention, control and research of tropical diseases in Sierra Leone, and continue the monitoring of emerging pathogens such as Ebola in West Africa. customise fidget spinnertyvek wristbandsslap wristbandsyouth wristbandsbracelet maker online
National association sees great potential for improved servicesA national association was set up on Saturday to promote the integration of artificial intelligence technology with medical care to improve services.The Chinese Intelligent Medicine Association will provide a platform for research, exchange and cooperation in intelligent medicine, Zhang Yanling, president of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, which supervises the new association, said at its inauguration ceremony on Saturday.While promoting the use of AI in medicine, the association will also assist the government in formulating standards and regulations for the development of intelligent medicine, which is still at its infancy, he said.Intelligent medicine will profoundly transform the medical care sector, and may bring great benefits to both patients and doctors, Zhang said, adding that 124 hospitals have practiced intelligent medicine in China."Intelligent medicine involves utilization of the latest technologies, including the internet, big data and artificial intelligence," said Dong Jiahong, president of the new association. "Developing intelligent medicine is of great importance in achieving more balanced distribution of healthcare resources, improving quality of medical care, efficiency and lower cost."Chen Xiaoming, president of First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, said a big challenge in developing intelligent medicine in China is a serious shortage of talented people who excel in both medicine and information technology."Universities should strengthen education and production of people who excel in both medicine and AI," he said. "Doctors and IT researchers at enterprises should work together to breed such talent."Lin Haotian, a professor in the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center at Sun Yat-sen University, said doctors should play a more important role in developing intelligent medicine because they work for patients and know their needs best."But doctors at big hospitals are usually too busy, and cannot find enough time for research," he said. "They need more support from the hospitals."As with many other sectors, the latest big data and AI technologies are increasingly being integrated with the health sector.The ophthalmic center in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, for example, opened the first AI clinic in China last year to diagnose cataracts with the help of an AI-assisted platform.In a clinic at the center, images of patients' eyes are uploaded to the platform, and a diagnosis can be given within minutes. Treatment plans are also offered for doctors' reference. The accuracy of the AI diagnoses exceeds 90 percent, the hospital said.Watson for Oncology, a cognitive computing platform designed by US company IBM can provide treatment options to commonly seen cancers. It has been used at 65 big hospitals in 39 cities in China, according to Fu Gang, chairman of Baheal Pharm, which introduced the system to the country last year.The system is expected to be used at more grassroots hospitals to help improve cancer diagnoses, he said.In a guideline released by the central government late last month that aims to promote the development of "Internet Plus healthcare", some major areas of focus were highlighted, including promoting the integration of internet technologies in medical care, public health, medicine teaching and medicine supply.Accelerating development of the "Internet Plus healthcare" platform is expected to bring more benefits to patients, including extending the coverage of high quality healthcare services, which is now highly concentrated in big cities, to more people, according to the guideline.
