China has made "noticeable" progress in its immunization
program, while problems still exist due to such reasons as
imbalanced regional development of the program and shortage of
funds, Chinese Vice Minister of Health Mao Xiaowei said at an
international medical conference held in
Beijing?Wednesday.
Mao said that the incidence rates of chincough, diphtheria and
tetanus and other epidemic diseases included in the country's
immunization scheme have dropped to a historic low.
On the other hand, the program has witnessed "retrogression" in
some economically backward and remote areas, Mao said at the 15th
Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on the Expanded Program on
Immunization (EPI) and Poliomyelitis Eradication in the Western
Pacific Region, which is jointly sponsored by the World Health
Organization and China's Ministry of Health.
China's national immunization scheme has successfully protected
"hundreds of millions of people" from being infected by once common
and deadly diseases, according to the "2004 International Review of
the Expanded Program on Immunizations in China" prepared by the
secretariat of the meeting.
Nevertheless, statistics show that 10 poor provinces and
autonomous regions failed to reach the national coverage target of
either equaling or exceeding 85 percent in terms of the number of
people having been inoculated against, Bacillus-Calmette-Geurrin,
oral polio, combined diptheria-pertussis-tetanus and measles.
The report suggests that special attention should be given to
inoculation work in remote and backward areas and areas inhabited
by ethnic minorities, so as to make the scheme benefit more
people.
(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2005)