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thirty-six-year-old doctor wang dongsheng was excited but also worried on the day he left for iran to fight coronavirus. "everything there is unknown," he said. however, his worries had disappeared and he was happy to see the changes that had taken place in iran 10 days later. "there are fewer people on the street as the government calls on the public to stay home on tv. makeshift hospitals have been built and people are getting their temperature checked at the checkpoints of hotels and major roads," he said. wang and his colleagues with the first affiliated hospital of the university of science and technology of east china's anhui province had been working in wuhan, a central chinese city hard-hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak, treating patients in severe condition, for nearly a month before they came to iran. wang and one of his colleagues at the hospital received a phone call asking him to join the voluntary experts in iran to help the nation fight the virus on march 14. they immediately packed their luggage and headed for the airport. after they arrived in teheran, they shared their treatment plan for patients in severe condition with local doctors and prevention and control measures with government officials. "clinical research on the treatment plan has been carried out in iran, and iran's nucleic acid testing capacity is also improving," he said, adding that medical supplies including ventilators, masks and shields, donated by china have also been delivered. "we are happy that other countries are willing to listen to our treatment plans and experience on fighting the coronavirus," he said. "i hope that the pandemic will be over soon." wang is not fighting alone. doctors from south china's guangdong province are also fighting the virus in serbia and iraq. "there was only one test center in serbia when we first arrived. now, their nucleic acid testing capacity has been much improved with five test centers," said lin bingliang, a doctor with the third affiliated hospital, sun yat-sun university, who volunteered to help serbia fight the virus. lin and his colleagues also suggested local hospitals to set up a buffer zone between the polluted and clean areas to help better protect the medics, build a makeshift hospital to treat patients with mild symptoms and check the close contacts of confirmed patients to better contain the virus. "the serbian government is quick to implement plans. it started working on the makeshift hospital the day after we suggested building one. it also imposed a curfew to keep people home at night," lin said. "we are touched for they showed us total trust. local doctors and residents will give us a thumbs-up when they see us," said long qisui, also a member of the medical team in serbia and an expert with guangdong's center for disease control and prevention. doctors with the first affiliated hospital of guangzhou medical school volunteered to help iraq fight the virus. xu yonghao and chen huai are among the medical team to help iraq build pcr (polymerase chain reaction) labs and ct scan rooms to improve diagnosis capacity. "we went to different places to meet local doctors. the longest day could start from 7 a.m. and end at 11 p.m.," said chen huai. tang menglin, a head nurse from southwest china's sichuan province, also had an intensive day in italy fighting the virus. but she still took time to write her diary, chronicling every detail of her days there. "we are together, we fight together," she wrote in her diary on march 17. tang volunteered to help italy fight the coronavirus, taking it as a way to pay back italy's help 12 years ago. "italy was among the first to help sichuan after the wenchuan earthquake hit in 2008. i'm here with gratitude," she said. tang held a livestreaming session to introduce the seven-step hand-washing method. "i was nervous to do such a livestream in front of so many people for the first time," she wrote in her diary. "but i know how important and helpful it is to teach everyone the right hand-washing method." "our mission to fight the virus has no boundaries. yes, we can!" tang wrote in her diary.
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