China burdened with infectious diseases
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Infectious diseases are a major cause of morbidity and death in China, claiming 1,000 lives in December 2007 and affecting 420,000 in total. According to China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the five most fatal diseases were: rabies; tuberculosis; AIDS; hepatitis B; and haemorrhagic fever. Infectious diseases, under China's law on the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, are classified into three types: class A (plague and cholera); class B (25 diseases, including viral hepatitis, AIDS, TB, newborn tetanus and schistosomiasis or bilharzias); and class C (10 diseases, including influenza, Kala-azar or black fever and localised typhus). The class A and B infectious diseases of TB, hepatitis B, syphilis, diarrhoea and gonorrhoea were responsible for 86.65% of the overall incidence in December 2007.