China sends disease teams of control experts to three Ebola-stricken countries as the battle against the epidemic in West Africa. This is the first time the Asian giant has involved itself in a foreign crisis.

Three teams will be sent on Sunday evening and Monday. The groups will be bringing with them supplies and their necessary expertise to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to help fight the outbreak that has taken too many lives in the continent.

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According to a statement from the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), each team includes one epidemiologist and two experts on disinfection and protection will be sent to assist in the containment of the fatal Ebola virus.

Xinhua News Agency reported that the Chinese government has shipped emergency supplies from Shanghai to the three countries where three more teams of Chinese specialists are staying put.

Eighty tons of anti-Ebola supplies worth 30 million yuan, or US$ 4.9 million, has been sent to West Africa via a Boeing 747 from Shanghai. The aircraft is due to arrive in the Ebola-affected countries on Monday evening.

It was the second wave of Ebola relief from Beijing. The first batch was sent in May, consisting mostly of disease control and prevention materials worth one million yuan each for Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea-Bassau.

The Chinese doctors were sent to the countries to help train local doctors and other medical workers in containing and preventing the outbreak, as well as to distribute additional medical supplies.

Leading the medical team dispatched in Guinea is Kong Qingyu, who explained that the first Ebola case recorded on March 9 in Conakry was treated at a Sino-Guinea Friendship Hospital where nine medical staff members were infected.

Six of them died of the disease while two more were put quarantined and has been tested negative.

As of recent records, almost 1,000 people had died from the disease. The World Health Organization has called for a united international response to the epidemic dubbing the outbreak as a "public health emergency of international concern."

TagsWest Africa, relief, experts