ABSTRACT
The health of the Chinese people during the first half of the twentieth century was deplorable. Contagious and parasitic diseases, including tuberculosis, smallpox, cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, measles, malaria, schistosomiasis, filariasis, leishmaniasis (kala-azar), and other helminthic infestations, were widespread (Table 3.3). The incidence of these diseases was exceedingly high. Half the population was estimated to have suffered from trachoma (Huang, 1973). At least 200 million people suffered from ascariasis (roundworm) infestation and another 100 million from ancyclostomiasis (hookworm) (Hou et al., 1959). Chinese epidemiologists documented areas in southern China where malaria was virtually holoendemic during the early-1950s (Ho and Feng, 1958). As a result, mortality due to contagious and parasitic disease was very high. The mortality rate for tuberculosis, which was the leading cause of death in urban areas during the 1950s, has been estimated to have reached 200 per 100,000 population per year (Peking Tuberculosis Research Institute, 1977).
