The height of humanity

At 4,700 meters above sea level, close to the Base Camp of Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest in the West, hordes of villagers in Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Northwest China's Qinghai province, search for and dig caterpillar fungus, or, Ophiocordyceps sinensis, a popular traditional medicine.

Foraging takes place in May and June every year and a tented mobile clinic provides pickers with medical care.

As an essential source of income for villagers, many of whom also work as herdsmen, the fungus that grows on caterpillars is highly valued in traditional medicine. Pickers have to brave a harsh environment and may face a variety of health issues during harvesting season.

Before the establishment of the mobile clinic, if the pickers fell ill or got injured, they had to spend one to two days traveling downhill to seek medical treatment. This resulted in a drop in their income.

Noticing the situation, the Yushu City People's Hospital and local authorities have coordinated with town-level health centers and clinics to build mobile clinics to provide more convenient medical services.

This year, the local authorities mobilized more than 200 medical and healthcare personnel from the prefecture, county, township and village levels, forming 26 mobile medical service teams to provide medical treatment at major harvesting sites, which are divided into 40 zones.

Each zone has three to five medical personnel, providing medicine and initial treatment for free. In the medical tents, there are healthcare services, including preliminary screening and diagnosis, blood pressure measurement and testing for blood sugar levels.

Tenzin Wangyal, who has been working in a mobile clinic for more than a decade, recalls an incident in 2019 when an elderly man fainted while digging for caterpillar fungus on the mountain, and his condition became critical. The doctor drove the urgently ill man to meet the ambulance in town, and he later fully recovered in hospital.

In the challenging high-altitude environment, the presence of mobile clinics has created a health safety net for herdsmen.