China issues plan to prevent chronic diseases

BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council has published a medium and long-term plan to prevent and treat chronic diseases in the next five to 10 years.

The plan, made public on Tuesday, aims to improve people's health, lower the onset risks of high-risk populations, and improve the patient quality of life.

The plan made lowering the premature mortality of major chronic diseases a core target, saying that by 2020 and 2025 the premature mortality rate of cardiovascular disease, as well as cancer and chronic respiratory diseases among the groups aged between 30 and 70 will drop by 10 percent and 20 percent, respectively, compared with 2015.

The plan put forward eight areas to be improved, including health education, standard diagnosis and treatment, health insurance and aid policies.