Over 85 percent of tuberculosis (TB) patients recovered in China in 2005, partly due to China's commitment to TB control, China's Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.

China is ranked second in the world next to India in terms of the number of TB cases. About 130,000 Chinese die of TB each year, twice the death toll caused by other infectious diseases.

Nearly all hospitals across the country have adopted the DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy Short-course) strategy as of the end of 2005, according to Mao Qun'an, the ministry's spokesman.

As a result, 75 percent of TB cases were detected in China in 2005, and more than 85 percent were cured, Mao said.

China has incorporated a flu monitoring network by deploying 198 influenza monitoring posts and more than 60 network laboratories nationwide, eying more effective control of the pandemic influenza and human cases of bird flu, Mao said when briefing reporters on China's control of other major infectious diseases last year.

In 2005, medical institutions above county-level have also been asked to monitor and report directly pneumonia cases with unknown causes to discover human cases of bird flu quickly, Ma said.

China also addressed the monitoring of major endemic diseases across the country in 2005, which resulted in improved treatment methods of deficiency in iodine and Kaschin-Beck disease in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Source: Xinhua