More funds will be poured into China's vast western region to improve medical services.

Vice Health Minister Wang Longde says China has recently provided 240 million yuan, about US$29 million, to set up medical treatment systems in poor areas in the country's west.

Next year, it will invest another 1.2 billion yuan, some US$145 million, to strengthen assistance from hospitals in developed areas to underdeveloped rural areas in the west.

The vice minister also notes that, with the building of the nationwide health information network in the wake of the SARS outbreak, the early warning system has shortened the reporting period for infectious diseases, and thus speeded up the diagnosis of such diseases.

(CRI November 24, 2004)