ABSTRACT
In 1949, China faced a massive burden of nutritional deficiency and infectious and parasitic diseases. More than half of the population was expected to die from infectious and other non-degenerative diseases before reaching middle age – a pattern still common throughout the developing world. Since then, dramatic and extensive social improvements have accompanied China’s growth. Rising incomes have eased poverty, reduced infant mortality, improved child and maternal health, and lengthened life expectancy. The average life span has risen from 35 in 1949 to 70 in 1998. Infant mortality rate has dropped from 200 per 1,000 people to 31 per 1,000. Infectious diseases, while still a serious problem in some parts of the country, now claim the lives of just around 0.0004 per cent of the population each year (China Ministry of Public Health, 1995).
