Key dates in national health progress

Key milestones in China's fight against contagious diseases:

1961: Smallpox eradicated

2000: WHO recognizes China's polio-free status.

2002: Leprosy incidence rate drops below 1 per 10,000.

2007: Last reported domestic case of diphtheria (believed to have been eliminated)

2014: WHO says mass vaccination against hepatitis B markedly reduced infection rate among children.

2015: China shifts from preventing and controlling schistosomiasis (an infection caused by parasitic flatworms) to working to halt its spread and eliminate it.

2017: China reports no local malaria cases for first time.

2019: Incidence rate of measles drops to its lowest level, of 0.213 per 100,000.

2019 onward: Incidence and death rates for tuberculosis steadily drops.

Incidence rates for epidemic encephalitis and Japanese encephalitis both drop to lowest levels. Prevalence of HIV/AIDS maintaining low level.

Sources: National Health Commission, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention