This is not a war you're fighting alone, says International SOS CEO

By Global Business

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01:28

As a medical and travel security assistance organization, International SOS is committed to supporting the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, and this is not a war that medical staff are fighting alone, according to Arnaud Vaissié, co-founder and CEO of International SOS.

Currently, more than half the organization are medical professionals, including emergency trained doctors, general practitioners, Advanced Life Support (ALS) medics, paramedics, and nurses.

"Let me take this opportunity to pay my most sincere tribute to all medical professionals who are the forefront fighting the disease. We feel so strongly connected. We want to assure you that this is not a war that you're fighting alone. We stand together in unity," he stressed.

Having operating in China for more than three decades, the organization helped in the fight against SARS in 2003 and provided support during the earthquake in Sichuan Province in 2008.

Now the organization is helping the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

"International SOS has been involved since the onset of the outbreak. We have doctors and nurses [who] chose to stay in the epidemic center in Wuhan. We've witnessed good times as well as challenging times over the 30 plus years of our operation here in China. Now we will continue to work hand in hand with our clients in China to overcome this new challenge," he said.

The CEO also says that its people around the world "all feel strongly committed to do the individual part and jointly as an organization to contribute what we can to support the efforts against the outbreak."

International SOS entered the Chinese market in 1989, four years after its establishment, and now it has Chinese clients involved in infrastructure-related state-owned enterprises, government agencies and organizations. The company is eyeing bigger opportunities from the Belt and Road Initiative as Chinese companies go global.