China and Africa agreed on Sunday to increase exchanges and cooperation in fighting HIV/AIDS and other pandemic diseases to better safeguard their people's health.

In an action plan endorsed by Chinese and African leaders Sunday, the two sides vowed to intensify cooperation in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, Ebola, Chikungunya, avian influenza and other communicable diseases and in the fields of quarantine and public health emergency response mechanism.

The Chinese government has decided to assist African countries in building 30 hospitals and provide 300 million yuan (37.5 million U.S. dollars) of grant for providing anti-malaria drugs to African countries and building 30 demonstration centers for prevention and treatment of malaria in the coming three years, it says.

China will continue to send medical teams to Africa in the next three years to the best of its ability and in line with the need of African countries and will actively explore with African countries new ways of providing such service, according to the action plan adopted at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China- Africa Cooperation, the largest gathering between Chinese and African leaders.

The two sides have also agreed that China will continue to provide medicine and medical supplies needed by African countries and will help them establish and improve medical facilities and train medical workers, the document says.

The African countries concerned expressed appreciation of China 's dedicated assistance, and pledged to provide proper working and living conditions for Chinese medical teams.

China has a long history of medical cooperation with African countries. Since the first medical team was sent to Algeria in 1963, more than 16,000 medical workers had served in 47 African countries and regions by the end of last year, treating 170 million African patients.

About 900 Chinese medical workers are still working in 35 countries.

Many African countries, especially in the south, are plagued by AIDS. Currently 70 percent, or 26.6 million of the world's HIV- infected live in sub-Saharan Africa. The continent has a staggering 3.2 million AIDS patients and 2.3 million deaths from the disease.

In a document issued in January, the Chinese government undertook to continue its medical aid to Africa, including medical teams, establishing and upgrading medical centers, delivering medicines and training medical workers, in a bid to help check the spread of deadly diseases like AIDS and malaria.

Experts say that China in return can learn a lot from Africa, for example, to raise public awareness of AIDS prevention. While many people still know little about the disease in China, AIDS related posters can be found everywhere in Africa.

"The long campaign against the disease has given African officials and experts more experience in HIV/AIDS prevention and control," says Zhang Jianxin, a professor of Sichuan University in southwest China, in an earlier interview with Xinhua.

Prof. Zhang is one of the lectures for the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Seminar for African Countries, a training program for African officials and doctors sponsored by the Chinese government since 2004.

The landmark two-day Beijing Summit concluded Sunday afternoon. Chinese President Hu Jintao, 41 heads of state or government and senior officials of 48 African countries that have diplomatic ties with China, as well as representatives from regional and international organizations attended the gathering highlighting " friendship, peace, cooperation and development."

Source: Xinhua