Chinese doctors cure women in Zanzibar with cervical cancer

Published: May 22,2023

A 48-year-old woman walked into the Mnazi Mmojahospital in Tanzania’s Zanzibar and shook hands with Chinese doctors and their local colleagues, expressing heartfelt thanks to them for saving her life.

Lemi Shija Mbaya, a mother of two children, was diagnosed with cervical cancer five years ago and had been receiving treatment since then until she fully recovered.

Over the last 59 years, the Chinese government has been assigning 32 groups of medical teams to Zanzibar to provide medical services for the local people, train local medical personnel and promote the development of Zanzibar’s health care. Mbaya is one of the patients of the Chinese doctors.

“I first started feeling unwell. At that time I heard over the radio that there were Chinese medical experts who were coming to Zanzibar to screen women for cervical cancer,” Mbaya recalled how she met the Chinese doctors. “I decided to go for screening and I was diagnosed with cervical cancer by the Chinese doctors in 2018.”

She said the Chinese doctors teamed up with their local colleagues and started treating her until she fully recovered from the disease. And she has returned to work at the local government.

“I really appreciate the treatment by the Chinese doctors because I could not have afforded to get this medical service in a private hospital,” she said, adding that the Chinese doctors are professional and very kind and friendly.

Mbaya said the local doctors helped the Chinese doctors translate the Kiswahili language into English while explaining the patients’ feelings.

“I hope this cooperation between Zanzibar and China will keep growing stronger and more Chinese doctors will keep on coming here to help us,” she said.

Ally Juma Hassan, a local gynecologist at the MnaziMmoja hospital, said the Chinese doctors and their local counterparts have been screening women aged between 21 and 65 years old for cervical cancer, adding that those diagnosed with the disease are treated free of charge.

Over the past five years, they have completed the screening of more than 12,000 women for cervical cancer, Hassan said, adding that this year, 9,000 women will receive examination, an exercise that will go in tandem with medical training for local doctors.

“The women that were diagnosed with the disease have already been treated,” said Zhou Huaijun who is leading the Chinese medical team. “We plan to complete the screening of 32,000 women for the whole project in Zanzibar.”

“Zanzibar is a very beautiful place, and the people here are kind and passionate,” he said. “The women in Zanzibar respect us and they trust the Chinese doctors.”

Xinhua