Feature: Skin disease patients in South Sudan find cure from Chinese medical team

Chinese dermatologist Zheng Jianfeng operates on a South Sudanese patient at the Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, on Nov. 8, 2024. (Photo by Denis Elamu/Xinhua)

NAIROBI, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Patients with fungal skin infections in South Sudan are increasingly flocking to the Juba Teaching Hospital, drawn by the expertise of Zheng Jianfeng, a Chinese dermatologist from the 12th batch of the Chinese medical team stationed in the country.

Benson Kocho, a 32-year-old teacher at Bethel Secondary School in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, is among the patients seeking treatment from Zheng.

With a tumor on his upper lip, Kocho came to the hospital on Nov. 8 after local doctors reached their wit's end over his medical situation.

"The tumor started small but it kept on developing in late September. It grew so big that I could not close my mouth. It gave me a stigma because everybody was asking me what this is," he told Xinhua on Tuesday, adding that the condition had even forced him to wear a face mask before his students.

Kocho said he was lucky to meet Zheng, because the Chinese doctor with "a true spirit of humanity" sympathized with his condition and performed an operation on him the same day.

Following the successful operation with the laser machine introduced last year by the Chinese medical team, Kocho is now relieved and no longer bothered about the concerns of his students and onlookers.

"The wound is recovering well and I have come to see the doctor to receive my routine medicine," he said.

Zheng treats about 60 patients on a daily basis. With such a packed schedule, he sometimes has to sacrifice his breaks.

Madaya Hassan, a Sudanese national who fled the ongoing conflict and arrived in Juba last November with her husband and two children, said the team of Chinese dermatologists has been kind to treat her son Sadiq Al-Amin, who has been suffering from chronic eczema for about eight years.

"I tried to seek medication but could not find it. Some people advised me to bring my child to the Chinese doctors. When we came here for the first time in July, my son was given medicine and the child recovered," she said.

A relapse, however, pushed Hassan to seek help from Chinese dermatologists for a second time.

"The child experiences intense itching, which forces him to scratch his rough skin until it bleeds. I sometimes had to tie the hands of the child to prevent him from scratching," Hassan said.

Zheng promptly examined the child, provided the medicine to alleviate the itching, and advised Hassan to return with her son for a follow-up in two weeks.

Joseph Kenyi Okumu, an assistant dermatologist who works with Zheng, said Chinese doctors are very dedicated and professional, adding that they have treated patients with common fungal skin diseases such as scabies, tinea, eczema and chronic dermatitis, as well as diseases like cutaneous larva migrans which occur mostly during the rainy season.

"We are giving free medication because the patients coming to us cannot afford medication outside this hospital," Kenyi said.

Chinese dermatologist Zheng Jianfeng meets a South Sudanese patient at the Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, on Nov. 19, 2024. (Photo by Denis Elamu/Xinhua)