With the help of a loan from the government of Switzerland, a comprehensive contagion control and medical service system will be set up in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
According to a local medical official, the loan of 40 million yuan (US$4.82 million), and the international-standard system will help prevent infection from hepatitis C and HIV, the virus which causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), through blood transfusion.
The city's rate of hepatitis C caught through blood transfusion is expected to drop from 5 percent at present to below 0.01 percent.
Meanwhile, the risk of catching HIV will be kept under six per ten thousand.
The system consists of advanced technology and equipment in the fields of immunization, blood-transfusion, irradiation examination, medical operations, ward facilities and biological testing.
(People’s Daily 12/05/2000)
