The Chinese medical team sent by the country to help with Ebola treatment pose for picture outside Hôpital De L'amitié Sino-Guinéenne in Guinea in West Africa. (Photo : CCTV News/YouTube)
The Chinese medical team from Beijing Anzhen Hospital became recipient of the South-South Awards given on Sept. 26, 2015 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
The team was honored for its “distinguished humanitarian efforts,” reported Xinhua.
Composed of 19 members, the team helped doctors attend to Ebola patients at the Hopital De L'amitie Sino-Guineenne (Sino-Guinean Friendship Hospital) in Conakry, Guinea.
The members also assisted in the treatments in two other Ebola-stricken West African countries, namely, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Medical teams from Egypt and America left Liberia, but the Chinese team stayed and continued helping, according to Xinhua.
Guinea, formerly French Guinea and sometimes referred to as Guinea-Conakry, is a French-speaking country in West Africa.
Sky News Australia reported that 2,500 Guineans have died of Ebola since Dec. 2013.
An update on the outbreak revealed that only two confirmed cases of Ebola were reported in Guinea as of Sept. 20, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Sept. 23 Situation Report.
An Ebola outbreak started in West Africa in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based in the U.S.
“Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission,” according to the WHO.
The 2015 South-South Awards was organized “in support of the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda and the 70th anniversary of the United Nations,” according to the invitation sent out to local and international press and media.
The summit took place from Sept. 25-27 in New York.
The permanent mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the U.N. co-organized the 2015 Awards Gala.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Organization for South-South Cooperation and the South-South Steering Committee for Sustainable Development supported the awards ceremonies and served as partners and co-organizers.
Permanent missions to the United Nations, different U.N. agencies and members from private sector and civil society groups co-organize and support the South-South Awards ceremonies.
The first South-South Awards was held on Sept. 19, 2011 in New York with the theme, “Digital Health for Digital Development.” New York hosted all succeeding awards ceremonies.
The subsequent South-South Awards created these themes: “E-government and Sustainable Tourism” in 2012, “Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Development” in 2013 and “Climate Change” in 2014.
