China-Pakistan Medical Corridor in pandemic era

BEIJING, Jul 6th (Gwadar Pro) – “Against the backdrop of COVID-19 sweeping the world, the importance and significance of the China-Pakistan Medical Corridor has become increasingly prominent,” a leader in charge of foreign affairs, Chinese Medical Association (CMA), said in an exclusive interview with Gwadar Pro.

 The Pakistani Medical Association (PMA) and CMA have jointly initiated an important mechanism, China-Pakistan Medical Corridor, to deepen bilateral medical cooperation and improve the health level of the Pakistani and Chinese people.

Founded in 1915, CMA is a national, academic and non-profit social organization formed by Chinese medical practitioners.  After a 100-year development, CMA now has nearly 700,000 members, 89 specialized branches and 478 professional groups. It has also participated in 42 international and regional medical organizations.

The spokesman of CMA believed that because of COVID-19 pandemic, it’s time to speak out for deeper medical cooperation between the two countries. “China-Pakistan friendship is unique around the world and throughout history. CPEC is an important approach for the two countries to achieve common development. The planning and layout of CPEC have covered all regions of Pakistan, so as to benefit all the people of Pakistan,” he added.

CMA and PMA are the organizers, coordinators and builders of the China-Pakistan Medical Corridor. In January 2016, the 1st China-Pakistan Medical Conference was held in Karachi in the presence of former president, Mamnoon Hussain. 32 experts and nearly 2,000 representatives from 14 branches of the CMA attended the meeting, which was a great success and a good start for the China-Pakistan Medical Corridor.

Since the mechanism was launched, a number of events have been held to improve bilateral medical level covering the fields of obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesiology, ophthalmology, osteology and so on. Taking ophthalmology as an example, in 2017, the mechanism organized experts to attend the 38th Annual Meeting of the Karachi Academy of Ophthalmology and the China-Pakistan Ophthalmology Forum. In 2018, 9 Chinese ophthalmologists operated on 529 Pakistani cataract patients over a period of 10 days, and successfully restored their sight.

“However, there’re more efforts Pakistani and Chinese medical workers can make in the context of the epidemic. Actually, our friendship has been further enhanced against the disaster,” he added, “After the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, PMA immediately sent a letter to express concern and sympathy. When the epidemic rages in Pakistan, CMA coordinated social resources to donate medical masks and anti-epidemic materials to Pakistan.”

The spokesman said at the end of the exclusive interview: “Against the backdrop of COVID-19 sweeping the world, the importance and significance of the China-Pakistan Medical Corridor has become increasingly prominent. CMA is ready to work with Pakistan to continue the construction of the China-Pakistan Medical Corridor, so as to benefit the health level of the two countries.”