Chinese Government pledges to send 480 medical staff to the China-aid Ebola Treatment center in Liberia (linked to Record ID#45030, #41553, #35498, #85142)

On October 24, 2014, President Xi Jinping announced the fourth round of assistance worth RMB 500 million Yuan on behalf of the Chinese Government to African countries for the fight against Ebola.

A highlight of this fourth batch of assistance was to build a 100-bed treatment center in Liberia, where the epidemic was most serious (see linked Record ID#45030).

The center was to be managed and operated by the elite squad of the People's Liberation Army of China who had experience fighting SARS.

The Chinese Government had selected and trained 480 medical staff from the PLA, who were to go to Liberia in three batches, each consisting 160 people, to treat local Ebola patients and build/manage the ETU. (The first PLA medical team is captured by Record ID#41553. The second PLA medical team is captured by Record ID#35498.

The third PLA medical team is captured by Record ID#85412.) The deputy head of the Chinese delegation, Director-General of Health Department, General Logistics Department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Ren Guoquan, said the opening of the Chinese ETU was the first international humanitarian relief project that was constructed and was to be operated and managed by the Chinese PLA.

A total of 361 health care workers were ultimately dispatched by the PLA in three separate teams until it was decommissioned on May 12, 2015 after Liberia was officially declared Ebola-free by the WHO on May 9, 2015. Over 6,000 local health care workers were trained, according to the World Health Organization's records.

Other Ebola-related assistance provided by the Chinese Government in 2014 is captured in umbrella Record ID#60642.