Farmers and herdsmen living in China's westernmost Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region can look forward to abundant medicine
following the formation of a medical care and disease-prevention
network, according to a news conference held in Beijing.
Simayi Teliwardi, chairman of the autonomous regional
government, said that medical services for all ethnic groups in
Xinjiang have improved constantly in recent years, at the press
conference held by the State Council Information Office on
Monday.
All 88 counties or cities in Xinjiang now have hospitals,
anti-epidemic stations and health centers for women and kids. Each
township has a hospital while each village has a clinic.
The autonomous regional chairman boasted the average number of
doctors per thousand people and the average number of
township-level sickbeds per thousand rural population are all above
the national average level.
"No longer is there a shortage of doctors and medicine for all
ethnic groups, especially those in rural area," he said.
The region now has 207 anti-epidemic stations and 17 prevention
and control clinics (or centers), specializing in the treatment of
endemic diseases. Endemic and contagious diseases that afflicted
local people of all ethnicities in the past have been basically
wiped out.
In the past eight years since 1994, with support from the
central government, Xinjiang has implemented water-treatment
projects for disease prevention and control. With an investment of
2.05 billion yuan (approximately US$250 million), the projects
provide drinking water for 8.35 million people and 26.6 million
livestock in rural and pastoral areas.
To date, the average life expectancy has been extended to 71.12
years in Xinjiang and the number of centenarians per million in
Xinjiang ranks first in the country.
(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2004)