A Chinese mobile laboratory testing team headed to Sierra Leone on September 16 to help contain the Ebola virus.

Relevant people from the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the health department of the general logistics department of the PLA held a simple farewell ceremony for the medical team. Li Bin, minister of the NHFPC, shook hands with the staff of the medical team. Li noted that since the Ebola epidemic broke out in West African countries, China has not only paid great attention to the disease, but has also cooperated with the international community to fight against it. China provided medical supplies to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and also provided financial aid to the WHO. The Chinese medical team always sticks its post. This time, China sent a medical team equipped with 59 experts to Sierra Leone, which fully embodied the friendship between China and Africa.

The medical team is made up of two groups of experts. One includes professionals from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention who are responsible for virus detection. The other, at the invitation of the Sierra Leone government, consists of medical staff from the 302 Military Hospital, who were involved in the fight against SARS in 2003. The staff will take on the work of monitoring observation cases. The medical experts specialize in laboratory testing, epidemiology, clinical medicine and nursing. They will help Sierra Leone in detecting the Ebola virus. The medical team will work at the China-Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital aided by China, assisting Sierra Leone to do laboratory screening and observe suspected cases.