Morbidity and death rates of infectious diseases reduced to low levels

China has strengthened the quality and effectiveness of infectious disease control and prevention in recent years, with the morbidity and death rates of some major infectious diseases reduced to low levels.

The progresses was the result of continued financial investment by the central government, the optimization of the reporting system, and people's improved awareness of healthcare, Wang Hesheng, deputy director of the National Health Commission and head of the National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control, told a news conference in Beijing on Thursday.

He said the National Development and Reform Commission had channeled 13.1 billion yuan ($1.84 billion) into optimizing infectious disease control and prevention mechanisms at all levels since 2021, while the central government had also allocated another 17.7 billion yuan this year to support control and prevention work on major infectious and endemic diseases.

The reporting system has been improved, with epidemic information now able to be reported from the grassroots to the administration in four hours rather than five days.

Wang said the administration can identify 300 pathogens within 72 hours, and all the provincial-level and 90 percent of the city-level disease prevention and control centers nationwide can conduct nucleic acid testing and isolate viruses.

"Regular vaccination services are also accessible to average people," he said. "And thanks to the good promotion of health knowledge in recent years, the public has better awareness of self-protection."

Wang said China has also controlled some major infectious diseases at a low prevalence level, with their morbidity and death rates reduced.

"HIV/AIDS is now at a low prevalence level," he said. "The morbidity of tuberculosis decreased to 52 per 100,000 people in 2022 from 65 per 100,000 in 2015 and its death rate has been reduced to a low level.

"The morbidity of some infectious diseases that are preventable through vaccination, including measles, encephalitis B and epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, has been kept to historical lows."