China delivers emergency supplies to Ebola-hit West African countries

A Chinese plane carrying emergency humanitarian supplies to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia landed here on Monday to help the three West African countries fight against an outbreak of Ebola epidemic.

The supplies worth 30 million yuan (4.9 million US dollars) included medical protective clothes, disinfectants, thermo-detectors and medicines.

Representatives from the Chinese Embassy in Guinea and the Guinean International Cooperation Ministry will transfer the supplies at a ceremony at the airport.

This is the second batch of Ebola relief provided by China to West Africa. China delivered its first batch of supplies in May, mostly for disease prevention, control and treatment, to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau.

The chartered plane, which left Shanghai in east China on Sunday, will be heading to Sierra Leone after the handover ceremony.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent messages on Sunday separately to Guinean President Alpha Conde, Sierra Leone President Ernest Koroma and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, expressing sympathy and solicitude for human and economic losses caused by the Ebola outbreak.

The Chinese president said that China is willing to support the three countries in containing the spread of Ebola.

The Ebola virus, which spreads through bodily fluids with those infected, has killed 961 people and affected 1,779 others this year in West Africa, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The World Health Organization warned on Friday that the disease is now a "public health emergency of international concern" and called for a coordinated international response to stop and reverse the international spread of Ebola.