South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"

By Denis Ejulu
Chinese medical equipment has transformed medical diagnosis at South Sudan’s main referral hospital, reducing the duration of testing for diseases.
The modern medical equipment donated in November 2023, by the 11th batch of the Chinese medial team to the microbiological laboratory in Juba Teaching Hospital have expedited the process of blood tests for pathogens, providing instant results that would have been determined in a week.
Wang Xinhui, a member of the 12th batch of the Chinese medical team which arrived in the country in August 2024, has played a critical role in the training of local staff and operationalization of the microbiology lab which became active in December last year.
Charles Stanley Mazinda, director of the laboratory at Juba Teaching Hospital, said on Friday that the 12th batch of the Chinese medical team has supported the revival of the microbiology lab which had collapsed.
“We used to have this laboratory here before it collapsed due to lack of supplies and some equipment, but we are grateful to the Chinese government for helping us revive the laboratory by supplying more modernized equipment, and all the necessary required regents or test kits,” Mazinda told The Dawn in Juba.
He said the microbiological lab is the only modern lab certified by the national public health laboratory agency of the government, adding that it serves the entire country.
“With the presence of the microbiology lab, samples from patients will be cultured and tested for the correct drug to be given, and the patients will be receiving the appropriate drug not just randomly and moving from one medicine to another when there is no improvement. Definitely it is going to have a great impact on our patients, and it has also been realized that there is a lot of anti-microbial resistance because of this random prescription of medication to patients,” Mazinda said.
Mazinda noted that the 12 batch of the Chinese medical team comprising of specialists attached to each departments in the hospital, have been training the local staff and also helping to lobby for more medical supplies.
“I am glad to say the laboratory specialist (Wang) that we received this time, is technically very strong and he is helping a lot in mentoring the local staff in the microbiology lab and also in other activities,” he said.
Simangi Paul Pascal, a 26-year-old lab technologist who has worked in the hospital since 2022, said that with the help of Wang they have improved their knowledge of operating the medical equipment, adding that previously they could not use the equipment effectively due to language barrier.
Wang not only helped the lab technicians translate the equipment from Chinese language to English, but also mentored them to be able to operate them on their own.
“He has been very beneficial to us because the first time when the equipment arrived at the hospital they were in Chinese language only, so he helped very much with the translation and the initial use. As of now some of the equipment has been translated into English, so any one can use the equipment,” Pascal said.
Pascal attended a six-month training in China in 2023, which enhanced his knowledge of operating the automated equipment.
“While in China, I was introduced to the automated systems which are similar to what we have in the lab. An automated system is good because it can work on many samples and release results faster than the manual system,” he disclosed.
Athian Garang Achier, a 36 –year-old senior lab technologist in Juba Teaching Hospital, said the modern equipment have eased the workload and also improved efficacy.
“Over the past years, we used to work here using the manual way because we did not have automated equipment, but right now we have blood culture testing instruments and many more equipment,” Achier said.
Wang Xinhui, said that his team designed the laboratory to ensure everything works very smoothly, adding that he got into contact with the Chinese equipment manufacturer to help translate some of the equipment.
“Some major equipment is already translated but some have not been translated into English. We have made sure that in the event when we return to China that local laboratory technicians can test the microbial samples themselves,” Wang said.
He said that automated machine can carry out simultaneously biochemical test and anti-bacteria susceptibility test faster than the previous manual system, ensuring speedy results.
“We use automated machine and in one step we can do the biochemical test to identify the bacteria, and then the anti-bacterial susceptibility testing to know which anti-bacteria can kill the bacteria, but usually with the manual system we need to do several biochemical tests at different times and later susceptibility test which would take like three days and in case of human error it takes 7 days to get correct results,” Wang said.
Wang also actively exchanged and cooperated with relevant national departments of South Sudan, and invited experts and leaders from the National Public Health Laboratory to visit and guide the microbiology lab of Juba Teaching Hospital.