Cataract sufferers in west China will benefit from a free operation program launched this month in the remote western province of Qinghai.

Some 250 cataract patients in the province will receive free operations, part of a total of about 1,000 in western provinces and autonomous regions.

Doctors and nurses from the People's Hospital of Beijing have arrived in the provincial capital and will join local medical staff to perform the operations.

Qinghai Province is located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the world's highest, where sparse oxygen and strong ultraviolet radiation contribute to a high rate of cataracts.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2003)