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Chinese people: Live longer and are physically stronger |
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09:57, September 11, 2009 |
China has changed from having a shortage of medical care and medicine to providing universal access to medical care, and from "the sick man of Asia" to a "healthy China." In the 60 years since the founding of New China, China's public health system and medical care service system has continuously improved, a basic medical security system has initially taken shape and the health of Chinese people is constantly improving.
At present, China's average life expectancy rate has jumped to 73 years from 35 years when New China was founded in 1949; the maternal mortality rate has dropped from 1,500 to 34.2 per 100,000 and the infant mortality rate from 20 to 1.49 percent. These three health indicators have ranked China among top developing countries and reached the average level of upper-middle-income countries.
Public health
Yang Shunzhou, 52, a rural resident of Dafang County in the Bijie area of Guizhou, used to use an open coal stove like his forefathers for generations, causing him to suffer from serious skeletal fluorosis and deformed arms. In early 2009, with the help of a government subsidy, he finally replaced the outdated coal stove with a return-air iron furnace. In 2009, China has listed the prevention of coal-burning fluorosis as a national major public health project, staging a "cooking stove revolution". 10 million people suffering endemic fluorosis are expected to be cured of the disease.
In early New China, 12 million Chinese people suffered from schistosomiasis. Sufferers of advanced schistosomiasis were described as having "A big head, hunched shoulders, abdomen as thick as a bucket, bony body and a short life." Nowadays, acute schistosomiasis has almost been eradicated.
Since the founding of New China, and following the health strategy of prioritizing prevention, focusing on rural areas and attaching equal importance to traditional Chinese and western medicine, China has effectively controlled the prevalence and spread of infectious diseases, eliminated smallpox and filariasis and met the polio-free target. In June 2009, China initiated six major public health service projects, the first step in achieving the gradual equality of urban and rural basic public health services.
Following the fight against the SARS in 2003, China has implemented a direct online reporting system involving public health incidents and epidemic situations of 38 types of infectious diseases. A daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual epidemic analysis and regular information release system has taken shape, putting China among top countries in terms of infectious disease and emergency public health incident information reporting and management work. At the end of 2007, the direct epidemic reporting ratio of medical institutions reached 95.99 percent, and the direct online reporting ratio of town and township-level health centers stood at 79.04 percent. At the end of 2007, China's rate of timely infectious disease reporting stood at 93.44 percent.
In 1950, China launched a universal smallpox vaccination campaign. In the early 1960’s, smallpox was completely eliminated. Since 1978, China has carried out a universal planned immunization program, using the four vaccines of BCG, polio, measles and DPT to prevent the six common infectious diseases of tuberculosis, polio, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus. In 2002, the State Council listed the hepatitis B vaccine in the coverage of the immunization program. In 2007, the State Council put hepatitis A, meningococcal and encephalitis B vaccines, MMR combined vaccines, hemorrhagic fever, anthrax and other vaccines in the coverage of national immunization program to prevent 15 types of infectious diseases.
As for handling major emergency public health incidents, China has accumulated precious experience. After the outbreak of the Wenchuan Earthquake, health departments across China carried out large-scale medical assistance and epidemic prevention work, treating a total of 3.01 million injured people from earthquake-hit areas, offering hospital treatment to nearly 100,000 wounded people and emergently relocating over 10,000 severely injured people. This set a record in terms of the number of injured people relocated in peace time.
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