Advice from Chinese medical experts was priceless for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the COVID-19 in Malta, said Neville Calleja, associate professor at the Department of Public Health of the University of Malta, in a recent interview.
Calleja has been responsible for contacting Chinese diplomats in Malta as well as Chinese medical experts since the beginning of the outbreak.
He termed the expertise of Chinese experts as "invaluable". "Since they went through it before any of us, they had the know-how and their advice was precious. We followed their guidance on social distancing... and advice related to medicine and what medical equipment we needed, which gave us a head start with procurement," Calleja said.
The Malta Trust Foundation, under the leadership of Former President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, helped secure a direct contact with Professor Wang Chen, a respiratory disease specialist and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was on the frontline in the fight against COVID-19 in Wuhan in China's Hubei province.
"We had a conference call with Professor Wang Chen wher he gave us advice on how to deal with the pandemic, from prevention to diagnosis and treatment. His advice was indispensable," said Calleja, noting that "We realised early on that we had to look at the East for answers. China, in particular, but also other Asian countries, which have been fighting this war for the longest time."
Top Chinese clinical experts also shared their experience on various treatment methods, some of which seem to be working and others that are not giving satisfactory results. "We most certainly appreciate these efforts and would love to have more information made available to us and the rest of the world," he said.
Calleja said the Malta authorities are doing their best to curb the spread of the virus. According to Malta's Health Ministry, the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 129 with no death reported as of Wednesday.
"This crisis has definitely taught both the Chinese and the Maltese, just like the rest of the world, how fragile humankind is, despite all the technological advancements, and the need for all of us to go back to the values of our forefathers, which include fraternity and the sharing of wisdom between all nations of the world," said Calleja.
