On the afternoon of Sept. 9, the 5th Chinese medical aid team to Sao Tome and Principe gathered at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, preparing for the one-year mission to the west coast country of Africa. Zeng Huajun, deputy director of the Health Care Office of the Sichuan Provincial Health Commission, the relevant persons in charge of the International Cooperation Office and the International Exchange Center of the Commission, the human resources department, department representatives and family members of West China Hospital saw off the medical team.

The medical team consisted of general surgery units from our hospital, West China Hospital of Stomatology of Sichuan University, First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu Sixth People's Hospital, Panzhihua Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, and Sichuan Provincial Health Commission International Exchange Center. There are 8 members including a translator and a chef and medical staff from Stomatology, Cardiovascular Medicine, Acupuncture and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. You Zhen, Deputy Chief Physician of Biliary Surgery in our hospital, is the team leader.

Before the expedition, the medical team had made a detailed plan for the work to be carried out, hoping to train a group of excellent midwives for Sao Tome and Principe to basically guarantee the sanitary conditions for child birth, and to use the remote platform built by our hospital to set up training courses for local medical staff to improve their technical level.