BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's key health news from the past week:

-- China's first small intestine transplant receiver celebrates 20th anniversary of rebirth

China's first living-donor small intestine transplant receiver celebrated the 20th anniversary of his surgery Monday in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, becoming the world's longest-living patient in such surgery.

The surgery was performed at the Xijing Hospital affiliated to the Air Force Medical University in Xi'an, the provincial capital, in 1999. Then 19-year-old Yang Feng received a 160-centimeter-long section of small intestine from his father. Both father and son are now in good health.

-- Life expectancy of Chinese increases by 42 years in nearly 70 years

The average life expectancy of Chinese people rose 42 years, from 35 years in 1949 to 77 years in 2018, according to a statistics communique recently released by the National Health Commission.

Life expectancy of Chinese people has been continuously increasing in recent years: from 76.34 years in 2015, to 76.5 years in 2016, to 76.7 years in 2017, and reaching 77 years in 2018.

-- Half of China's newborns in 2018 second children

About half of China's 15.23 million newborns in 2018 were second children in the family, according to a recent report by the National Health Commission.

The country has made steady progress in improving its maternal and child health services, the report says, adding that lactation facilities had been provided in 88.3 percent of public places that should be equipped with such facilities.

-- Number of China's healthcare workers, sickbeds rises

Last year saw further improvement of China's healthcare service capacity, with the medical and health workers totalling 12.3 million as of the end of 2018, up 4.7 percent year-on-year, according to a National Health Commission statistical report.

The country's medical and health institutions boasted a total of 8.4 million sickbeds as of the end of 2018, up 5.8 percent year-on-year. The number of sickbeds per 1,000 people rose from 5.72 in 2017 to 6.03 in 2018. Enditem

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