Life expectancy of the Chinese people has risen to 73 years old from 71.4 in 2000, said a briefing released by China's Health Ministry on the development of the country's hygiene undertakings between 2003 and 2007. The death rate of infants was reduced by more than 10 millesimal to 15.3 in one thousand in 2007 and death rate for maternal women fell to 36.6 in 100,000 during the same period, reported China News Service.
A sharp increase was seen in the establishment of new health service organizations, the report said. Three hundred and fifteen thousand such institutions were in service by the end of last year with the ratio of registered doctors in every 1,000 citizens reaching 1.56 and that of nurses at 1.12.
The total budget for health undertakings last year exceeded one trillion yuan, accounting for 4.82 percent of the country's GDP, amounting to 781 yuan per capita.
However, patients had to shoulder heavier expenditure in treatments due to the steep hike in overall consumer price level. According to statistics, spending for every outpatient hit 128.7 yuan in 2007, 2.8 higher than that in 2006 and toll for inpatients rocketed to 4,874.8 yuan each, a rise of 7.9 percent from the level in 2006.
China has also made ceaseless effort in preventing and controlling contagious diseases, according to the ministry, in particular in the battle against AIDS.
The government offered 1.8 billion yuan last year in AIDS prevention and treatment, covering all provinces in the mainland and benefiting 39,000 people with the free of charge anti-virus therapy.
China also saw great progress in boosting the development of its new type rural cooperation medical system and medical insurance in urban areas, which had 730 million and 30 million registered members in countryside and in cities respectively as of the end of last year, the report said.
