¡¡¡¡BEIJING, Oct. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- China will strive to improve healthcare in rural areas, Chinese President Jiang Zemin said on Tuesday in a letter to a national conference on public health in rural areas.

¡¡¡¡Jiang said the Chinese government had placed great importance on public health in rural areas and had just announced a new plan to further improve rural sanitation and healthcare.

¡¡¡¡The national conference on public health in rural areas which opened in Beijing on Tuesday, will discuss such topics as how to revitalise the cooperative health care system for rural dwellers, push forward restructuring of rural hospitals and improve the education and supervision of rural medical workers.

¡¡¡¡China has succeeded in protecting people from such deadly diseases as cholera, plague and smallpox since the 1960s.

¡¡¡¡The infant mortality rate has dropped from 200 per thousand babies in 1949 to 33.8 per thousand last year; while the mortality rate of rural pregnant women fell from 1,500 every 100,000 in 1949 to 61.9 per 100,000 last year. And the average life expectancy of rural dwellers has risen from 35 years some 50 yearsago to 69.6 years old in 2000.

¡¡¡¡A public health network and a considerable number of doctors have been set up in rural areas with a cooperative health care system. Enditem