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Disease
Prevention and Treatment
Chinese
public health departments at all levels conscientiously pursue the
principle of putting prevention first. Active steps are taken to
prevent and, if necessary, treat contagious, endemic, parasitic
and other diseases. In the early 1960s China entirely eradicated
smallpox, more than a dozen years ahead of the rest of the world.
In the 50 years since the founding
of New China, epidemic prevention stations were established by governments
at various levels all over the country, which have played an important
role in disease prevention and treatment, and hygiene supervision.
In 1998, epidemic prevention stations totaled 4,018, among which
1,696 were county-level epidemic prevention stations and 1,889 were
specialized clinics and health stations.
In order to eliminate
and control epidemic and endemic diseases, the Chinese government
has issued a series of laws and regulations, such as the Law on the
Prevention and Treatment of Epidemic Diseases, National Plan of Action
for Eliminating Poliomyelitis by 1995, and Program on Eliminating
Iodine-Deficiency Diseases by 2000. Active measures have been adopted
for promoting immunization programs. Inoculation of children has successfully
controlled the incidence of measles, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough
and epidemic encephalitis B. The incidence of these diseases and the
death rate of children from them have dropped greatly. At present,
disease prevention and treatment and patriotic hygiene work are making
great progress. As a result, the health of all China¡¯s citizens has
greatly improved since 1949, and the average life expectancy has increased
from 35 to 70. Today, the main causes of death are malignant tumors,
cerebrovascular diseases and heart diseases, which are typical causes
of death in developed countries. Relevant research institutes and
medical organizations are currently actively pursuing better methods
for the prevention and treatment of these diseases, while monitoring
the incidence and infection trends of epidemic diseases in both China
and foreign countries. In the past 50 years marked achievements have
been made in disease prevention and treatment in China. The Disease
Control Department of the Ministry of Health won the special achievement
prize for public health work awarded by the WHO in 1996. |
