Commitment, effort key to making China world leader in TB control

A Chinese medical worker prepares to vaccinate a young kid at a hospital in Shanghai, China, March 20, 2016. Daniel Chin, a TB expert with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "I would say that's probably the best progress that we've seen in tuberculosis control for a long time, and China was able to succeed in doing that," said Daniel Chin, a TB expert with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who's from the United States. Chin has served as an adviser to the National Health and Family Planning Commission since 1999, helping to develop programs and policies for the control and prevention of TB in China. China led the world in TB control from 2000 to 2010, Chin said, when a large-scale control program modeled on the World Health Organization's recommendations was implemented that ultimately saw as many as 750,000 TB patients receiving effective treatment each year－reducing their number by more than 50 percent. Although access to medical care has improved throughout the country due to an enhanced primary healthcare system and expanded government insurance coverage, many TB patients still cannot access quality treatment in China, he said.