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 | Thursday, April 13, 2000, updated at 13:46(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Sino-Japanese Immunization Cooperation LaunchedThe governments of China and Japan have agreed to join hands in expanding vaccination services in five Chinese provinces.The five-year cooperation project, beginning this June, will begin in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, and then open in Qinghai, Gansu, and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, it was announced on April 12 at an agreement-signing ceremony. Called the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI), the project will mainly focus on introducing safe injections while improving the local accesses to and the quality of vaccination services. Japanese specialists will come to China to provide technical instructions and some facilities. Vice Health Minister Yin Dakui said the EPI will play an important role in safeguarding the health of new generations in the west, which is implementing an ambitious development program launched by the central government this year. However, health officials fear that backward health care facilities could hinder the overall development of the region. "In fact, immunization work in some areas has suffered setbacks due to insufficient government investment, lack of EPI services among the migrant population, a shortage of professionals, and other reasons," acknowledged Wang Zhao, director of the Department of Disease Control under the Ministry of Health. In some western provinces, the vaccination rate has even dropped to 40 percent, compared with more than 90 percent in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, she added. Annual national EPI activities could cover some 11 million infants, or about half of the newborns across the country each year. "Without the shelter of vaccination, infectious diseases such as polio, measles, and hepatitis B may spread and endanger the health of our children again," Wang Zhao warned.
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