The average life span of Shanghai residents last year hit 80.97 years, up from 80.13 in 2005, according to figures released on Wednesday by Shanghai Health Bureau.

The death rate for infants was 4.01 in every 1,000 live births, and 8.31 in every 100,000 for women pregnant or in labor - meeting the standard for developed countries, officials said.

City medical staff treated 115 million outpatient and emergency cases and performed 569,500 inpatient surgeries last year, both setting new records.

In 2006, there were 2,519 health facilities with 138,000 medical professionals working in the city.

"Authorities have spent a lot of effort in controlling diseases. The incidence of serious infectious diseases last year was 204.07 in every 100,000 people - a low level," said health bureau official Song Guofan. "Moreover, 99.31 percent of children were able to receive free vaccinations against diseases."

The top 10 causes of death were cardiovascular diseases, tumors, respiratory diseases, injury and poisoning, endocrine and nutritional-metabolic disorders, digestive system diseases, infectious diseases and parasitic diseases, mental diseases, genitourinary disease, and diseases of the nervous system.

In addition, local health officials detected 9,929 cases of irregular and illegal medical practice, confiscating goods and issuing 12.9 million yuan (US$1.69 million) in fines. Officials closed 2,493 underground medical clinics and withdrew the licenses of three hospitals. Illegal medical advertisements also dropped from 60.63 percent in the previous year to 1.41 percent after tightening administration to avoid advertisements misleading patients.

Officials said the bureau will soon release statistics on different levels of hospitals' practice, patients' medical costs and patients' satisfaction with medical services for 2006.

(Shanghai Daily June 28, 2007)