Health Care

Most of the rural regions of China have very poor public health education, medical facilities, and epidemic prevention services. Sickness-related poverty has become one of the biggest obstacles in improving the livelihood of villagers. In northwestern China, infectious diseases, local epidemics, and worming diseases are prevailing. For instance, tens of thousands of people in China suffered from diseases associated with insufficient intake of iodine; One third of the sufferers are in western China, and many are seriously ill patients. Because medical expenses are unaffordable to most villagers, they tend to delay or deny medical attention when they suffer from problems which can later develop into fatal conditions. Many families are trapped in the vicious cycle of contracting poverty-promoted medical diseases which then cause further poverty. Medical health has therefore become one of the major obstacles in China's path of development.

IRD runs joint-research projects with local research institutions and governments to enable medical services for villagers. We aim at developing low-cost and high-efficiency medical services by a combination of villager cooperation and policies supported by government.