Illness brings heavy economic burden to many families, especially those in countries of low per-capita income. Statistics from World Health Organization showed that in low-income countries each year see 2-7 percent population fall into poverty due to illness.

At the ongoing 55th session of the Regional Office of the World Health Organization for the Western Pacific held in Shanghai, deputies are focusing on how to set up and improve mutual-aid medical service in rural areas and how to ensure sustainable economic and health profits for states and farmers.

Facing threats from emerging infectious diseases such as SARS, AIDS and bird flu, quite a number of farmers of medium and low income countries can not receive adequate disease prevention and public health service. Clinics are usually far from villages, and low-quality equipment and service cannot meet people's needs. While departments providing health care have been troubled by lack of fund and qualified doctors as well as poor management, as a result they are unable to set up organized basic medicinal service at village level.

In developing mutual-aid medical service in rural areas a financing system combining public and private departments must be set up, said Professor Xiao Qinglun of Public Health College, Harvard University, with public departments providing funds for prevention and public health service. At the same time, an organized medical supply system should be built to provide a platform for programs of AIDS, SARS, TB and health care for mothers and children.

There are also many families in China dragged into poverty by illness each year. To deal with the problem the state conducted trial cooperative medical service in some rural areas. Among qualified farmers some 70 percent joined mutual-aid medical program. Quality of medicine and service for common diseases were raised and farmers expressed more satisfaction.

By People's Daily Online