WHO head pays tribute to mobile team

Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, paid an inspection visit on Tuesday to a Shanghai-based emergency rescue team, one of three such teams that became the first to join the WHO's Emergency Medical Team Initiative earlier this year and the only one in China.

Chan urged the team, capable of providing mobile emergency field hospitals and staff members in response to natural disasters and disease outbreaks, to gain more practical knowledge from rescue teams that have been to the world's hardest-hit regions.

"You should communicate more with those who have participated in rescue missions in places such as West Africa, where resources are limited and sanitation conditions are poor, to gain a better understanding of how to prioritize workloads in changing circumstances," Chan told the team members during her visit to a mobile emergency field hospital, which cost 150 million yuan ($22 million) and is comprised of more than 10 large tents, during a team drill involving 60 doctors and nurses from Shanghai East Hospital.