Medical service provision in South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe until February 9^th
Gyeonggi Province is providing comprehensive medical services to the people of Africa.
 

The‘Nanum’ Medical Service Team is composed of 32 doctors and other medical professionals from the Gyeonggi Province Volunteer Medical Service Team, SAM Anyang Hospital (President: Dr. Park Sang-eun), Hallym University Medical Center (Director: Dr. Jeong Gi-seok) and Korea University Anam Hospital (Director: Dr. Park Seung-Ha ). Medicines will be supplied to PharmBank by four pharmaceutical companies including Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Hanlim Pharm Co., Ltd., Dream Pharma Corp. and Korea Eundan Co., Ltd.

Gyeonggi Province plans to conclude MOUs with the health ministries of the Republic of South Africa and the Republic of Malawi during the medical service period, and will support children’s health care and the training of African medical professionals to ensure steady cooperation in health and medical care matters between Korea and those countries. Gyeonggi Province will also select a number of children suffering from heart problems that cannot be treated in their own countries and bring them to Korea for free heart surgery.

In 2011, Gyeonggi Province dispatched a total of 157 doctors and medical professionals to seven countries, including Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Cambodia, dispensing free medical treatment to approximately 12,000 people. Last year, Gyeonggi Province signed an agreement to help African children exposed to various diseases in poor medical circumstances with the Gyeonggi Province Volunteer Medical Service Team, the Africa Future Foundation (President: Hwang Yeong-hui), and Football Act29 (Representative: Im Heung-se).

Director Kim Yong-yeon of the Gyeonggi Province Health and Welfare Bureau said, “The dispatch of this medical service team constitutes a humanitarian act to help prevent AIDS and promote healthy children in Africa. In an effort to continuously assist private organizations’ medical services in Africa and other regions around the world, Gyeonggi Province will do its best to support various measures including the dispatch of ‘Nanum’ medical services, the training of medical professionals, and the supply of medicines via PharmBank.”

According to the Korean Committee for UNICEF and UNAIDS, more than 12 million AIDS orphans live in Sub-Saharan Africa out of a total of 15 million throughout the entire world. Every year, 390,000 children are infected with HIV/AIDS. One child AIDS patient dies every minute. Only 20% of child AIDS patients can afford AIDS treatment, which costs just KRW 25,000 a month. In particular, more than 5.2 million people are infected with the HIV virus in South Africa. Every year 59,000 children are born with HIV in that country.

Contact: Public Health Policy 8008-4780

http://gnews.gg.go.kr/briefing/brief_gongbo_view.asp?BS_CODE=S017&number=13608