China's health authorities are battling against illegal medical practices and counterfeit goods such as food, cosmetics and medical items in order to create a more favorable market environment, a senior health official said on Friday.
The nationwide health-inspection campaign against counterfeiting started in early March but more needs to be done because the practice of making, selling and using fake goods is still rampant.
Zhang Wenkang, minister of health, made the remarks yesterday at a national televised conference about the anti-fake goods campaign.
Since March, health inspection officials have seized nearly 2,500 tons of fake and inferior food, cosmetics and disposable medical devices worth more than 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million).
About 1,400 illegal producers of fake products and nearly 40,000 illegal medical clinics have been shut down, official statistics indicated.
Zhang urged health authorities at various levels to work with other market supervision departments across the country to concentrate on cracking down on fake food, medicine, medical devices, illegal medical practices and the illegal collection of blood.
Relevant ministries under the State Council, such as the Ministry of Public Security, attended the meeting.
Law enforcement departments will punish law breakers, according to Zhang.
The ministry will also continue its efforts to fight against overstated advertisements for health foods which have angered the public in recent years.
According to a recent official survey, about 40 percent of surveyed health foods in Beijing have exaggerated their functions in advertisements.
Meanwhile, strict inspections will also be carried out in food-providing units, such as school dining halls, to avoid food poisoning incidents.
In the first quarter of this year 491 people suffered from food poisoning in student dining halls, about 70 percent of the total poisoned people in that period, official statistics said.
Thanks to effective treatment, no students died. But across the country 40 people are reported to have died from food poisoning during this period.
At the same time, disposable medical devices, including syringes and blood collection and transfusion devices, will be carefully inspected.
The latest official sample survey indicated that only 85 percent of such disposable medical devices produced by licensed manufacturers meet State standards.
Illegal clinics and medical practitioners without official licenses are now forbidden to continue their business, the minister noted.
(China Daily 05/12/2001)
