World Bank's Loans Help Chinese Cure TuberculosisTailor Liu Zhixi recently recovered from tuberculosis and is now able to reopen his shop and get back to work.Whenever people say an admiring word to him, he always responds "It was the tuberculosis prevention project that saved my whole family." A TV program about tuberculosis prevention brought Liu to the local epidemic prevention hospital where he and his family members received medical checkups. His two daughters were also found to be suffering from tuberculosis, and the hospital offered free medical treatment to the entire Liu family, who have now all recovered. The tuberculosis prevention project that Liu mentioned is the one implemented with World Bank (WB) loans and Hebei provincial and local money beginning in 1991. The project has received a total investment of 12.22 million U.S. dollars, 6.23 million of which came from WB loans. Incomplete statistics show that the project has included nearly 600 million people across China. The problem of tuberculosis resurfaced in recent years after years of silence due to the spread of AIDs, and for other reasons, and has been declared an emergency health issue by the World Health Organization (WHO). In northeast China's Liaoning Province, the tuberculosis prevention project has benefited everyone, as more than 40,000 patients have recovered during the past eight years. Along with Hebei and Liaoning, 10 other provinces and municipalities including Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality in the southwest have undertaken tuberculosis prevention with the aid of WB loans. |
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