China will carry out three major health programs in its densely populated rural areas in 2009 to improve the health of women and children and to lower the death rate of pregnant women and babies.
The three programs are said to be cervical cancer and breast cancer checkups for women in the rural areas, supplementary folic acid to prevent neural tube defects, and providing subsidies for hospitalized childbirth.
Under the programs, from 2009 to 2011, China will provide cervical cancer checkups for 10 million women and breast cancer checkups to 1.2 million women in the rural areas of the country. Yang Qing, a representative from China's Ministry of Health, said that the purpose of testing for the two cancers is to lower the death rate and increase the life quality of rural women by early diagnosis and early treatment.
According to Yang, there are about 300,000 babies are born with deformities each year in China; and a major cause is the deficiency of folic acid in pregnant women. So to improve the health quality of the newborns, over the next three years the country will provide folic acid free of charge to 12 million pregnant women in rural areas to prevent NTD in babies.
It is said that pregnant women who choose to deliver a baby at home are at risk of dying. Though the government has taken many measures to increase hospitalized childbirth, only 10-20% of women in the poor and remote areas give birth in hospital. Previously, China offered subsidies for pregnant women who deliver a baby at hospital in the rural areas in the middle and west part of the country. From this year on, the Chinese government will expand its subsidy policies to all the 31 provinces and regions of the country to benefit all the pregnant women in the countryside.
Liu Qian, vice minister of China's Ministry of Health, said that the three programs are measures the country is taking to balance its public health services and the funds needed for the three programs are already prepared by the central finance department.
