The training provided by successive Chinese professionals from 2003 to 2009 has been sufficient to transform Tsevi Kodjo Noel, a 38-year-old local assistant, into an acupuncture professional in Togo.
Xinhua reporter went to the spot to meet this local practitioner who has been making wonders for patients in the Regional Central Hospital of Lome Commune (Centre hospitalier regional Lome-Commune), China-aided hospital, as he effectively began in 2009 to provide treatment.
"From 2003, and for years, I have been learning acupuncture on the job as assistant of professionals of Chinese medical teams that has two years term mission in Togo," Tsevi Kodjo Noel said.
He said to have been successively trained and taught by five acupuncture professionals of Chinese medical missions that assist the West African country reinvigorate its health system.
According to Dr. Wang Weizhong, surgeon and chief of the current Chinese medical mission, the Togolese assistant "enjoys studying and has learnt a lot from Chinese experts".
"Tsevi is a good example and a success story of Chinese know-how transfer in term of acupuncture medicine," the chief mission said.
He said that Togo needs to reinforce its medical system in recruiting more physicians and other practitioners, regarding the prevailing health situation in this West African country.
"With the Chinese cooperation, the continuous medical mission and more medical equipments, China is of great help to Togo health system," Dr. Wang said.
"Since 2009, I receive patients, make diagnosis and treat them," Tsevi said, adding that he has provided effective treatment to over 400 patients of diverse diseases during six years of practice.
These are patients with facial paralysis, hemiplegia, some urinary problems, lumbago, epilepsy, lombosciatica, arthritic, stiffness, knee osteoarthritis, menauposal hot flashes and so on.
"I call Tsevi my savior," Mensah Komlan, a 61-year- old man cashier, told Xinhua reporter about this local acupuncture practitioner.
"I woke up one morning and could not move my right hand to write or eat. The conventional medical intervention provided was not efficient," he lamented.
He went on to say that he was at loss how to, with tears in his eyes, when Tsevi offered to help him, but it sounded like a joke for him before he decided to experience it.
"Three days after the first acupuncture intervention I felt a relief," he told Xinhua, adding that for three years he has been feeling pretty well.
Many of his old patients witness the effectiveness of the traditional Chinese medicine of acupuncture. Ettah Djifa, a 30-year lady who suffered from facial paralysis, said that "he treated me and in a month everything became normal".
"Behind my humble person, it is the Chinese medicine which is seen," Tsevi Kodjo Noel said, adding that acupuncture experts of the current Chinese medical mission have contributed significantly to his knowledge and performance.
The medical mission is almost at the end of a two year-term service, as it will leave in the coming September, after the arrival of a new team.
Particularly in the field of acupuncture, over 200 patients in average are treated per month in the Regional Central Hospital of Lome Commune, chief mission Wang said.
