White paper on medical and health services in China

The new round of medical reform has brought substantial benefits to both urban and rural residents. Access to basic public health services has become much more equitable; the gap between urban and rural areas and between regions has been narrowed in medical development; medical services in rural and remote areas with backward facilities and weak capabilities have been remarkably improved; medical services have become more affordable and accessible; and fewer and fewer people are becoming poor or return to poverty because of illness.

III.

Infectious Disease Prevention and Treatment, and Health Emergency Management

Since the founding of New China, the Chinese government has persisted in the principle of "prevention first and integrating prevention with treatment" and continuously intensified efforts in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. By preventive inoculation, patriotic health campaigns and other prevention and control measures, China has succeeded in bringing down the morbidity of infectious diseases and brought their spread under control. China has basically brought under control the epidemics of such diseases as plague, cholera, kala-azar and leprosy since the 1950s. In 2011, the morbidity of Class A and B infectious diseases was kept at a low level 241.4 per 100,000 people. All these measures help to safeguard the Chinese people's health and life.

National immunization program has been implemented. The national immunization program represents one of the most notable and influential undertakings of China's healthcare work. In the early 1960s, China eliminated smallpox through vaccine inoculation, a dozen years ahead before the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the eradication of the disease in 1980. China attained the goal of eliminating poliomyelitis in 2000. In 2002, the Chinese government decided to include hepatitis B vaccination for the newborn in the national immunization program, increasing the number of four vaccines against six infectious diseases to five vaccines against seven infectious diseases. In 2007, China decided to further expand the scope of the program, increasing the number of vaccines to 14 to prevent 15 infectious diseases and extending the scope of vaccination from children to including adults. Since the launch of the new round of medical reform, the scope of the national immunization program has kept expanding, and it has played a positive role in reducing the morbidity of infectious diseases and improving the health of the public. Already, the morbidity of most infectious diseases that can be prevented by vaccination has fallen to the lowest level in history.

Major infectious and endemic diseases have been brought under effective control. Patients of many major infectious diseases, such as AIDS, tuberculosis, snail fever, hydatid disease, leprosy and malaria, are provided medicines and treatment free of charge. In 2011, China's living HIV-infected persons and AIDS patients were estimated at 780,000, far below China's goal of controlling the HIV-infected population within 1.5 million. The morbidity of infectious tuberculosis has fallen to only 66 per 100,000 people, attaining the goal defined in the UN Millennium Development Goals ahead of time. All counties where epidemics of snail fever used to break out have attained the goal of bringing under control such epidemics, limiting the number of snail fever patients to 326,000. China took the lead in eradicating filariasis among the 83 countries where epidemics of filariasis hit. China keeps improving its capabilities of influenza control and prevention, taking monitoring at the major task. In 2010, the National Influenza Center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was officially nominated the fifth WHO Collaboration Center for Reference and Research on Influenza. China steadily promotes endemic disease prevention and treatment. It has eradicated the diseases caused by iodine deficiency at the national level, and brought under effective control of Kashin-Beck disease, Keshan disease and fluorine poisoning, notably reducing the incidence of these diseases.