BEIJING: For Chinese ophthalmologist Shi Yu, the Latin American country of Guyana offers many new experiences.
“This was my first time taking a plane to go and offer medical services in Guyana, and the destination was Lethem,” she wrote. Located on the southwestern border, the city, the largest in south Guyana, is close to Brazil and most locals speak Portuguese. “So it also became my first time using a translation app to communicate with patients,” she explained on her Weixin Moments, the ubiquitous Chinese super app’s Instagram-like feed, on February 26.
The doctor from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital in Jiangsu Province in east China is a member of China’s 18th batch of medical teams dispatched to Guyana more than four months ago.
Nearly 600 km from Guyana’s capital Georgetown, Lethem is underdeveloped in terms of economy and healthcare. Given the lack of medical sources, even patients who suffer from common diseases cannot receive effective or prompt treatment. Invited by the local government, the medical team arrived in Lethem on February 24 to offer two-day free medical services starting from their day of arrival. Their services included general surgery, traditional Chinese medicine treatment and acupuncture, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics. They also donated dozens of commonly prescribed medicines to residents.
–The Daily Mail-Beijing Review news exchange item
