Quality of children's healthcare rises in China

The number of pediatricians in China has increased by 74.4 percent from 2015 to nearly 206,000 at present, a health official said on Friday. 

Shen Haiping, deputy director of the commission's department of maternal and child health, said that China now has 158 children's hospitals and 3,082 maternal and child care facilities. 

"The number of beds per 1,000 children has reached 2.7, up by 0.27 in 2015," she said during a news conference.

Shen added that key indicators of children's health conditions in China has reached the best historical levels. From 2012 to 2023, the nation's infant mortality rate had decreased by 56.3 percent to 4.5 per 1,000 live births, and the mortality rate of children under 5 had dropped by 53 percent to 6.2 per 1,000 live births during the period. 

Regarding the concerning problem of prevalent myopia among young students, Shen said that the coverage rate of eye health care and vision screening among children aged six and under has reached 95.1 percent.

From 2018 to 2022, the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents in China went down by 1.7 percentage points to 51.9 percent, and the rate among six-year-old toddlers fell by 1.8 percentage points to 12.7 percent. 

"We are seeing a trend of improvements but there is still a long way to go to prevent and control myopia among them," she said, adding that strengthened efforts are needed to ensure full implementation of eye health care and vision screening services among children aged six and under.