The average life span of Shanghai residents last year hit 80.97
years, up from 80.13 in 2005, according to figures released on
Wednesday by Shanghai Health Bureau.
The death rate for infants was 4.01 in every 1,000 live births,
and 8.31 in every 100,000 for women pregnant or in labor - meeting
the standard for developed countries, officials said.
City medical staff treated 115 million outpatient and emergency
cases and performed 569,500 inpatient surgeries last year, both
setting new records.
In 2006, there were 2,519 health facilities with 138,000 medical
professionals working in the city.
"Authorities have spent a lot of effort in controlling diseases.
The incidence of serious infectious diseases last year was 204.07
in every 100,000 people - a low level," said health bureau official
Song Guofan. "Moreover, 99.31 percent of children were able to
receive free vaccinations against diseases."
The top 10 causes of death were cardiovascular diseases, tumors,
respiratory diseases, injury and poisoning, endocrine and
nutritional-metabolic disorders, digestive system diseases,
infectious diseases and parasitic diseases, mental diseases,
genitourinary disease, and diseases of the nervous system.
In addition, local health officials detected 9,929 cases of
irregular and illegal medical practice, confiscating goods and
issuing 12.9 million yuan (US$1.69 million) in fines. Officials
closed 2,493 underground medical clinics and withdrew the licenses
of three hospitals. Illegal medical advertisements also dropped
from 60.63 percent in the previous year to 1.41 percent after
tightening administration to avoid advertisements misleading
patients.
Officials said the bureau will soon release statistics on
different levels of hospitals' practice, patients' medical costs
and patients' satisfaction with medical services for 2006.
(Shanghai Daily June 28, 2007)