government calls on the whole society to show concern for the health develop- ment of children. The Expanded Program of Immunization has been initiated for all children with a view to controlling infectious diseases affecting them. The systematic health care for infants and young children is pursued in both urban and rural areas through popularization of scientific rearing, breastfeeding and growth monitoring. At present, system management of health care for infants and young children is mainly provided to 0—7 age group such as neonates, infants and young and weak children, including setting up of health records, regular health check- ups and timely correction of defects and unhygienic habits and prevention and treatment of diseases. The Ministry of Public Health has especially formulated and issued <Provisions for Health Care in Nurseries and Kindergartens> with a view to further upgrading health care of group children. Since 1978, much effort has been exerted on the prevention and treatment of the four commonly-seen diseases among the children i.e. nutritional anemia, rickets, pneumonia and. diarrhea. A national program has been mapped out for guiding the control of the above diseases in a planned way. The child mental health monitoring has been initiated in some areas. In 1984, a research center on child mental health was founded in Nanjing carrying out studies on medical treatment and teaching of child mental retardation as well as providing training to professionals in child mental health. The improved child health care has promoted children's growth and development and raised the level of children's health. The findings of second national survey on child physical development in 1986 has shown an average increase of 0.5cm in height and 0.5kgs in weight respectively as compared with that of the first survey in 1975. The infant mortality rate in the country has been reduced from 200/1000 in pre-liberation days to 34.7/1000 at present.
Family planning is a basic state policy of China. The weighty responsibilities of the health departments are therefore to provide technical service in family planning with emphasis on contraception, spread comprehensive contraceptive methods, disseminate birth control knowledge, provide technical guidance on birth control, train professionals in birth control skills and raise their expertise to guarantee the quality of birth control operations. The Minstry of Pubilc Health has issued <Regulations on Technical Management of Family Planning> and < Procedures for Birth Control Operations>. Those who engage in birth control operations must receive training first and are allowed to perform operations only after being qualified through technical examination. Meanwhile, reseaches are being conducted to develop new IUDs, long-term, short-term and fast-acting oral contraceptive pills, injectables and devices which should be economic, simple and convenient, effective and safe.
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Integration
of Traditional Chinese and Western
Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine has a history of thousands of years and has unique theories with rich practical experience. Since the founding of new China, our government has attached great importance to the role played by traditional Chinese medicine in protecting people's health and proceeding from co-existence of traditional Chinese and western medicine and actual needs of people, has explicitly pointed out that both traditional Chinese medicine and western medi. cine should be developed in our country. "Development of our traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacology" is stipulated in the Constitution with a series of principles and policies laid down and various effective measures taken to promote the development of traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacology.
State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine was officially estab lished in July 1986.
In the field of traditional Chinese medicine there are now more than 500000 personnel, 1800 specialized hospitals with 160000 beds and departments of tradi tional Chinese medicine has been set up in 95% of hospitals of western medicine at and above county level. Among 1.3 million trained village doctors most of them can use therapy of traditional Chinese medicine such as medicinal herbs and acupuncture in preventing and treating diseases. There are 28 colleges of tradi tional Chinese medicine and pharmacology with a total of 73000 graduates and 1200 postgraduates of Ph.D or master degrees trained and in addition, there are 57 research Institutions of traditional Chinese medicine.
The integration of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine is a newly emerged force developed under the specific historical conditions of China in which modern medicine and traditional medicine co-exist. The policy of integrating traditional Chinese and western medicines has been pursued, so that the traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine can supplement each other, make up each other's deficiencies and bring their respective strong points into full play. Academically, the policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and hundred schools of thought contend" has been followed. This has played a significant role in developing medicine in our country.
Medical Education and Scientific Research
Great importance has always been given to the training of medical and
235
19
Page 285Page 286
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.