My name is Jiang Shiwen, and I work in the National TB Control Centre.

How many patients are receiving TB treatment in China so far?
So far about 1 million, for the active pulmonary (chest) tuberculosis. For the smear positive cases it is about 0.6 million.

What are some of your other successes in this TB programme ?
We reached the 2005 targets…that means the DOTS (directly observed treatment) coverage is 100%, Treatment rate is 70%, and cure rate is 85%.

What is China’s position in the world, based on the number of TB patients in your country?
China’s position is second. According to estimates from the year 2000, it is about 4.5 million for active pulmonary Tuberculosis. For the smear positive cases we have about 1.5 million.  This is prevalence; not incidence (number of new TB cases per year). For the incidence, it is about 1.3 million cases of active pulmonary tuberculosis. For the smear positive cases we have about 0.6 million.

And what are the challenges you come across when trying to reach them?
I think the first is money; because we give free treatment for the examination- for microscopic examination and X-Ray. The second is migration. Some people living in the rural area move to the city. These people who live in the high prevalence province move to the lower prevalence city to seek jobs and earn money. If they move to the city, they do not have good living conditions; they do not have fixed jobs, so they cannot earn much money. They may easily suffer from pulmonary tuberculosis. For these patients, it is very difficult to finish the treatment. They may only receive treatment for 2 or 3 months and then go back to another city. So we must trace these patients to give them monitoring and evaluation.

In China, the central government provides the drugs free for all the patients since 2004. Now we use the Global Fund money. In some cities we give them some help, for example give them transport fees. If they suffer from TB, they lose their jobs and have no income, so we have to give them some support, for example transport fees, and maybe give them some food, if they come to the TB dispensary to receive treatment.