The average lifespan has shot up by 36 years and people now live to 71, a dramatic shift from half a century ago.

Before 1949, people were severely affected by epidemics and many varieties of disease were endemic due to the lack of health and medical care.

Cholera, smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid and malaria plagued the country and claimed many lives in the first half of the century.

According to incomplete statistics, when the People's Republic of China was just founded, 100,000 people were infected with Kala-azar, a tropical disease, 600,000 had malaria and 1.7 million suffered from tuberculosis in north China’s Hebei Province alone.

In the past 50 years, the nation has made great progress in building up its medical system, which features low costs, wide coverage and high efficiency.

The mortality rate of women and children has decreased by a large scale and the health care system has been much improved. The birth mortality rate fell to 3.31 percent in 1997 from as high as 20 percent in the 1950s, below the average level of the world and that of other developing countries.

The death rate for pregnant women also decreased to 63.6 out of every 100,000 from the previous 1,500.

Medical facilities and institutes now total 310,000, increasing from 3,670 in 1949, with the number of beds increasing to 3.15 million from 80,000.

A health care and disease prevention network has also been set up in the vast rural areas, which has effectively safeguarded the health of 900 million rural residents.

(Xinhua 01/04/2001)