China Heath and Medicine News Links

China Health and Medicine News Links

Ex-chief of China's drug watchdog executed
July 10, 2007 - Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), was executed on Tuesday morning with the approval of the Supreme People's Court. Zheng, 63, was sentenced to death on May 29 by the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court after being found guilty of taking 6.49 million yuan (about 850,000 U.S. dollars) in bribes and dereliction of duty. (Click title of this news for full report.)

Cancer most lethal illness in China last year
China Daily, May 8, 2007 - Cancer was the most lethal illness in China in 2006, the Ministry of Health revealed on Monday. Cancer topped the list of ten most lethal diseases for urban residents in China last year, followed by cerebrovascular disease and heart disease, according to a survey by the ministry in 30 cities and 78 counties. In rural areas, 92 percent of fatalities were caused by ten kinds of illnesses, the first three being cancer, cerebrovascular disease and respiratory disease. The death rate from cancer has risen 19 percentge points in cities and 23 percent in rural areas from 2005, the survey says, without giving the exact figure. The number of cancer patients has been soaring in China since the 1970s. About 80 percent of cancer patients died from common cancers of the lungs, liver and stomach, according to previously released figures.
Nearly 500,000 Chinese Die of Hepatitis B Annually
Xinhua News, Apr. 9, 2007 - China has become the country with the world's largest population of hepatitis B patients, said an official with the country's Hepatitis Prevention Foundation Sunday. Wang Zhao, head of the foundation, said that nearly 500,000 Chinese are killed every year by liver damage and hepatocirrhosis triggered by chronical hepatitis B. He pointed out that about 120 million Chinese have positive reaction for hepatitis, which has become a severe public health problem in the country. His foundation and Novartis pharmaceutical company are working together in pushing forward education project on hepatitis prevention, including 120 lectures covering major cities.
AIDS on the Rise
Xinhua News, January 25, 2006 - The incidence of AIDS is still on the rise in China, according to a joint assessment report on the country's HIV/AIDS situation that released on Wednesday. The number of new HIV/AIDS infections in China was about 70,000 in 2005, with 25,000 deaths reported across the country, according to the report. The report added that intravenous drug use and unprotected sex were the main causes of infection. China currently has about 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS including about 75,000 AIDS patients. The assessment was jointly released by the Ministry of Health, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, and the World Health Organization during the 2005 Update on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Response in China.
Cancer rates in north China city rise sharply in 20 years
Xinhua March 7, 2007 - Cancer rates in north China's port city Tianjin have increased more than 40 percent over the past two decades, which researchers say is mainly because the ratio elderly people has more than doubled. The research conducted by the Chinese Academy of Engineering in Tianjin, which has a population of 4 million, shows that the number of people who contract cancer increased from 177 per 100,000 to 245 per 100,000 over the past 20 years. (Click for full report)China's Chan takes over as WHO chief
Jan.4, 2007 - GENEVA (Reuters) - Chinese bird flu expert Margaret Chan took over as head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday promising to put Africa and women at the top of her agenda. Chan, the first Chinese to head a United Nations' agency, was chosen as director-general of the 192-state world health body last November in an election prompted by the death in office of her predecessor, Lee Jong-wook of South Korea. (Click for full report)
Number of cancer cases rises rapidly
China Daily, Sep. 20, 2006 - The combined factors of improper diet and stress have increased the incidence of some highly fatal cancers in China, including colorectal and pancreatic cancers. During recent medical conferences,experts reported alarming growth of some forms of cancer and called on the public to guard against the diseases by changing unhealthy lifestyles and ensuring early detection. (Click for full report)
Beijing reports a death from AIDS
ChinaView.cn, Aug. 25, 2006 - An AIDS sufferer died in Beijing last week, the Beijing Health Bureau confirmed Friday. Statistics from the bureau show that Beijing has 3,142 HIV carriers and AIDS patients in its 18 districts and counties, 313 of whom are cases discovered in the first six months of the year. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the Chinese capital has grown by an average of 40.6 percent each year since 1998, according to Guan Baoying, deputy director of the bureau's Disease Prevention and Control Department. The deadly virus which first spread among drug abusers, sex workers and homosexuals is now appearing in the general population, Guan said. Most of the HIV carriers and AIDS patients in Beijing are aged between 20 and 49, the official said. Guan said that 36.7 percent of people living with HIV and AIDS are drug abusers, 34 percent were infected through sexual contact and the others contracted the disease through blood transfusions and other causes. Earlier in March this year, the Beijing Health Bureau instructed all hotels -- nearly 5,000 in the city -- to place condoms in their rooms. However, only 60 hotels graded three- or five-star have done so, Guan said. In addition, the city is planning to open six methadone clinics this year to help drug abusers drop their habit and in a bid to curb the spread of HIV, the official said. By the end of 2005, there were more than 140,000 people infected with HIV in China. Officials and experts estimate that China has approximately 650,000 people living with HIV, including approximately 75,000 AIDS patients. Worldwide, total HIV infections had exceeded 40 million and more than 30 million AIDS patients had died by the end of 2005, according to figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.