A nationwide charity tour for helping poor people in the prevention and treatment of liver diseases was initiated in Beijing on Sunday.

The three-year program is cosponsored by the China Charity Federation and a pharmacy company under Haier Group based in Qingdao City in eastern China. It plans to assist hundreds of thousands of poor liver patients in the country.

The program will offer free-of-charge diagnoses to 100,000 poor patients, distribute free medicine to 10,000 patients who are from very poor families, and give financial assistance to 1,000 families that have been impoverished owing to the liver illness of their members.

According to official figures, 130 million Chinese are carriers of virus of liver diseases of different species, while 30 million suffer from hepatitis-B. Some of these patients do not have money for treatment.

(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2005)