Geographical Locations - China

• (Statistical) Number of Inhabitants per Doctor: 648

Organisations and Networks

UN and Multinational

• WHO
  - Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO) in Manila (Philippines)
  - WHO - Environmental Burden of Disease: Country Profile – China
• United Nations - China

Government

• Chinese Ecosystem Research Network
• Ministry of Education
• National Environmental Protection Agency
• National Office of Statistics
• National Population and Family Planning Commission of China
• State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Non-Government

• Can China Feed Itself? A System for Evaluation of Policy Options - "The core of this application (provided by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis) is an integrated analysis of China's food prospects that takes into account biophysical, climatic, hydrological, demographic, social, economic, and political dimensions. In addition, a broad range of related data sets were selected, have been converted into tables, maps, satellite images, and charts, and are here merged into an interactive hypertext document"
• China Environment and Development Information - "created by the Institute of Environment and Development (IED), a Chinese NGO in Beijing. It is designed as an information resource and also a knowledge system about China's environment and development and development issues. We collect the information from officially published media in China, aiming to enhance the public awareness in this challenging area and provide the interested people and groups with the solutions to the environment problems in this country"
• Community Aid Abroad : China
• HealthNet : China
• Hong Kong Dental Association
• Hong Kong Medical Association
• Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health

Academic Institutions

• Beijing Medical University : School of Public Health
• China Education and Research Network
  - Project Hope - a social welfare program from 1989, to raise much-needed funds for the improvement of educational condition in China's poor areas and promote youth development in China (by CYDF).
• China Health and Nutrition Survey : Map of Survey Regions - information page from CPC at UNC, Chapel Hill (USA)
• Chinese University of Hong Kong
  -Department of Community and Family Medicine
  -School of Public Health
• Hong Kong : Department of Community Medicine & Unit for Behavioural Sciences
• Peking Union Medical College
• Medical Centre of Fundan University - formerly Shanghai Medical University : School of Public Health - with outlines of the different departments

National Policy and Related Documents

Reports, Guidelines, and Projects

• A Comparison of the Health Systems in China and India
  "In this [2008] paper, the authors [Sai Ma and Neeraj Sood] compare the health systems of China and India — the world’s two most populous countries, each of which is undergoing dramatic demographic, societal, and economic transformations — to determine what approaches to improving health in these two countries do and do not work. In particular, we compare the health systems of China and India along three dimensions: policy levers, intermediate outcomes, and ultimate ends. Policy levers are policies or behaviors that affect the financing, organization, and regulation of health care. Intermediate outcomes are the efficiency, quality, and level of access to care. The ultimate ends of a health care system are to promote better health, reduce the financial risks associated with medical care, and increase consumer satisfaction. This paper identifies priority areas for reform in each country that can help improve the performance of each health system. Both countries must (i) restructure health care financing to reduce the burden of out-of-pocket medical care costs on individual patients; (ii) increase access to care, especially in rural areas; (iii) reduce dependence on fee-for-service contracts that promote overutilization of medical care; (iv) build capacity for addressing and monitoring emerging diseases; and (v) match hospital capabilities with local needs."
• Review of dengue fever cases in Hong Kong during 1998 to 2005
  Objective: To describe the epidemiology, clinical and laboratory findings, and outcomes of patients presenting locally with dengue. Design: Retrospective review of case records. Setting: Public hospitals, Hong Kong. Patients: Medical records of all laboratory-confirmed dengue patients admitted to public hospitals during 1998 to 2005 were reviewed retrospectively. Results: A total of 126 cases were identified, 123 (98%) being dengue fever and three (2%) dengue haemorrhagic fever. One patient who had blood transfusion–acquired dengue fever was highlighted. A total of 116 (92%) cases were ‘imported’, while 10 (8%) were local. Among the 56 dengue cases confirmed by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, dengue virus type 1 was the most common accounting for 48% of them, followed by type 2, type 3, and type 4 responsible for 23%, 16%, and 13%, respectively. Only type 1 and type 2 were present in locally acquired infections. The median age of the patients was 38 years and the mean duration of hospitalisation was 6 days. There was no mortality, and nearly all patients (98%) presented with fever. Other symptoms at presentation included: myalgia (83%), headache (65%), fatigue (59%), and skin rash (60%). More than one third of patients had gastro-intestinal and upper respiratory complaints. Maculopapular skin rash was the most common physical finding. Thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, and lymphopenia were present in 86%, 78%, and 69% of the patients, respectively. In only 29% of the patients was dengue fever included in the initial differential diagnosis. The demographic, clinical, and laboratory findings as well as outcomes did not differ significantly among the four dengue serotypes, but the lowest lymphocyte counts of type 3 was lower than the other serotypes (P=0.004). Conclusion: When physicians encounter patients with a relevant travel history, presenting with fever and skin rash, and having compatible haematological findings, dengue fever should be included in the differential diagnosis. [author abstract] [Hong Kong Medical Journal, 2008; 14: 170-177]
• UNGASS Country Progress Reprot [sic] – P. R. China
  "The cumulative number HIV positives reported at the end of October 2007 was 223,501, including 62,838 AIDS cases and 22,205 recorded deaths. In 2007 the Ministry of Health, UNAIDS and WHO have prepared this updated assessment of the AIDS epidemic in China. The estimation result showed by the end of 2007, approximately 700,000 are now HIV positive (range 550,000-850,000). The HIV infection rate among China’s population is 0.05 per cent (range 0.04-0.07%). The estimated number of AIDS cases is 85,000 (range 80,000-90,000). The estimated new HIV infections in 2007 are 50,000 (range 40,000 -60,000) and there are estimated 20,000 AIDS-related deaths (range 15,000-25,000). Among the living HIV positives, 40.6 per cent were infected through heterosexual transmission. Currently, China’s HIV epidemic remains one of low prevalence overall, but with pockets of high infection among specific sub-populations and in some localities. The characteristic of the epidemic in China are: The epidemic continues to expand, but the rate is slowing; sexual transmission is now the main mode for the spread of HIV; geographic distribution is highly varied; and the epidemic continues to be driven by high-risk behaviour within particular sub-populations."
• Universal coverage and health financing from China's perspective
  "Since the 1980s, the Chinese health system has not been perform­ing well. The income gap between the rich and poor has widened and the “marketization” of medical services has led to a decline in equity and access.1 The world health report in 2000 showed that equity of financial contributions in the Chinese health system was poor,2 and demonstrated that government spending was less than 20% and that user fees from consumers were nearly 60% of total health expenditure.3 In addition, only 15% of the population in the formal sector is covered by social health insurance. The majority of rural and urban residents, children and im­migrants are not covered by any health insurance system."

Educational Resources

• Chinese Medical Journal
• Chinese Public Health Posters - The U.S. National Library of Medicine houses one of the world's largest history of medicine collections. It collects, preserves, and makes available to researchers and the public, print and non-print materials that document the history of medicine, health, and disease in all time periods and cultures. This page provides links to Chinese public health posters from a range of historical periods and covering a variety of topics.
• WWW Virtual Library: China
• CDC - Travel Information : East Asia
• China Dimensions - This site has been developed by the China Task Team of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) of the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) under contract NAS5-32632 to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• China Today
• Health Services Delivery in China: A Literature Review - This paper reports the results of a review of the Chinese-language and English-language literatures on service delivery in China, asking how well China’s health care providers perform, what determines their performance, and how the government can improve it. It finds current performance leaves room for improvement, in terms of quality, responsiveness to patients, efficiency, cost escalation, and equity. The literature suggests that these problems will not be solved by simply shifting ownership to the private sector, or by simply encouraging providers—public and private—to compete with one another for individual patients. By contrast, substantial improvements could be (and in some places have already been) made by changing the way providers are paid—shifting away from fee-for-service and the distorted price schedule toward prospective payments. Active purchasing by insurers could further improve outcomes.
• Library of Congress, Country Study: China
• UNAIDS/WHO Epidemiological Fact Sheets on HIV and AIDS, 2008 Update – China
• Xinhua News Agency - the official news agency of the Chinese Government