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Chinese team arrives in Liberia to staff Ebola clinic

A man reads a board extolling China's contribution to the fight against Ebola, in Monrovia

A Chinese military health worker has his temperature taken as he arrives at Roberts airport outside Monrovia, to help in the fight against Ebola

A Chinese military health worker has her temperature taken as she arrives at Roberts airport outside Monrovia, to help in the fight against Ebola

Chinese military health workers arrive at Roberts airport outside Monrovia, to help in the fight against Ebola

A Chinese military health worker has her temperature taken as she arrives at Roberts airport outside Monrovia, to help in the fight against Ebola

Members of a medical aid team of People's Liberation Army (PLA) carry a flag during their departure ceremony at Beijing Capital International Airport, in Beijing

About 160 Chinese health workers arrived on Saturday in Liberia, where they are due to staff a new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other foreign interventions, is being built and fully run by Chinese personnel.

China, Africa’s biggest trade partner, had come under fire for the level of its response to the Ebola crisis. But it said this week it would send 1,000 personnel to help fight an outbreak that has killed over 5,000 people in West Africa.

“Up to now in Liberia, China is the only country which provides not only the construction of an ETU (Ebola treatment unit), but also the running and operation and the staffing of an ETU,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yue told Reuters.

The United States has pledged more money and personnel than any other nation pitching in to fight the worst Ebola outbreak on record. But its response is based on building clinics and training locals to run them.

Yue said the new team in Liberia included a mix of doctors, nurses, technicians and engineers.

“They experienced SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). They are very knowledgeable in this area,” he said, referring to the contagious illness that was first identified in China in 2002 and killed several hundred people across the world.

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