China's Health Minister Wang Longde wrote an article for the
People's Daily yesterday, indicating that many diseases
have a close relation with unhealthy habits in people's life. In
order to get rid of bad habits, Chinese people need a widespread
and thorough "behaviorist revolution."
How could China carry out this "behaviorist revolution" to
realize the goal of improving Chinese people's health level?
In many rural areas, residents' houses are very close to
livestock and poultry sheds and their contacts with domestic
animals are quite frequent. Moreover, a majority of animals'
excrements fail to get non-hazardous disposal; as a result, the
environment in rural areas abounds with some pathogenic
microorganisms. This is the widest gap in sanitation and health
between China and developed countries and is also the main factor
that affects people's health. In order to prevent diseases which
infect both people and domestic animals, the first step is to
separate people's living environments from domestic animals'
habitats.
In addition, bad habits are a major cause of many infectious and
endemic diseases. Hepatitis A, hepatitis B and SARS are all related
to people's sanitary habits. Chinese people should make more
efforts to cultivate good habits, which serves as an important
means to prevent diseases from spreading and infecting people.
In China, deficient exercises are a crucial factor which results
in rising incidence of many chronic diseases. Enough exercises can
prevent 90 percent?of diabetes type II and coronary heart
diseases, improve osteoporosis, increase human body's immunity and
reduce incidence of some tumors.
A recent survey of Chinese people's nutrition and health status
shows that incidence of chronic noninfectious diseases has risen
rapidly and deficiency of nutriments like iron and vitamin A widely
exists in China. Therefore, reasonable adjustments of dietary
structure and intake are significant to Chinese people's
health.
HIV carriers increased about 70,000 in 2005 in China, equivalent
to about 190 every day. Everyone should absolutely reject
unfavorable behaviors which are highly hazardous to one's life and
health in order to control the prevalence and spread of AIDS.
People working in health authorities should play an active role
in propelling Chinese people to participate in this "behaviorist
revolution."
(China News Service March 17, 2006)