Over 85 percent of tuberculosis (TB) patients recovered in China in 2005. This was due in part to China's commitment to TB control the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.

 

China is ranked second in the world next to India in terms of TB case numbers. About 130,000 Chinese die of TB each year--twice the death toll caused by other infectious diseases.

 

Since the end of 2005 nearly all hospitals across the country have now adopted the DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy Short-course) strategy 2005 according to Mao Qun'an, Ministry of Health spokesman. As a result 75 percent of all TB cases were detected in China in 2005 and more than 85 percent were cured, Mao said.

 

China has set up a flu monitoring network by deploying 198 influenza monitoring posts and more than 60 network laboratories nationwide keeping a close watch on the situation. The aim was more effective control of the pandemic influenza and human cases of bird flu, Mao said in a briefing on China's control of other major infectious diseases last year.

 

In 2005 medical institutions above county-level had been asked to monitor and report directly pneumonia cases with unknown causes to recognize human cases of bird flu quickly, Ma said.

 

China had also addressed the monitoring of major endemic diseases across the country in 2005 and this resulted in improved treatment methods for deficiency in iodine and Kaschin-Beck disease in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2006)