The Ministry of Health issued a circular Tuesday, ordering to set up a national monitoring network on injuries, by appointing 43 hospitals throughout the country, including 23 in rural areas and 20 in cities.

These 43 monitoring units will be randomly selected and could be replaced by others, the document says.

The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies illness into three categories, namely infectious disease, non-infectious disease, and injury.

In China, 7 to 8 million people die of injuries of various kinds, accounting for 11 percent of the total deaths in the country, or ranking the fifth among all factors causing deaths among Chinese, according to official figures.

On the day, the ministry issued its "National Plan on the Monitoring of Injury".

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2005)