Feature: Chinese doctors bring relief to elderly people in South Sudan

JUBA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Mary Keji Henry, a 65-year-old resident of Gudele suburb in the South Sudan capital, Juba, has for the past year been incapable of moving due to immense pain in her joints and back.

Keji told Xinhua that she underwent several scans and treatment in Juba, but the pain did not relieve until some one advised her to visit Juba Teaching Hospital where members of the ninth batch of the Chinese medical team are treating people with similar pain like hers.

She was among several patients who turned up on Wednesday at the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) facility and got relieved of pain upon being treated by the team led by doctor Huang Jian. "For almost a year I have been just staying home because I was unable to move completely. I have undergone several tests and scans but I was never relieved from the pain," she said.

Keji now joins a long list of patients who have seen their body pain treated successfully since September this year when the Chinese medical team arrived in the country. "I am now not feeling pain. If it continues like this then that will be very good," added Keji who before could not bend or answer the call of nature.

Huang, a TCM doctor, said that most of his patients complain of joint and back pains, adding that he treats about 15 people with such complications on a daily basis. "For some patients with back pain and joint pain we always do acupuncture, but for other patients complaining of general body pain we always provide them with some medicine to supplement treatment," he said.

Huang has been using TCM to treat people for the last 17 years.

Mary Sadia Michael, a 55-year-old resident of Jebel suburb, said she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, but the treatment she had been receiving over the past seven years did not relieve pain in her body. She is now hopeful and optimistic after being attended to by Chinese doctors at the TCM facility.

"I have a relative who was admitted to Juba Teaching Hospital. My relative told me that there are Chinese who diagnose problems in the bones and veins," she said, adding that TCM service is exceptional from other forms of treatment she has grown used to.

Mary Sunday, 44-year-old resident of Jaberone, said she had been unable to move for about seven months after local doctors told her she had got a common form of inflammatory arthritis. Despite being treated for the ailment, she had not yet recovered from the pain in both her leg and back until she visited the TCM facility.

"I feel comfortable now that the leg is not painful. It has long been disturbing me," said Sunday.