Thousands of children in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, especially in the largely disadvantaged rural areas, will soon be given hepatitis B vaccination.
In cooperation with UNICEF and the government of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Annie Wu, vice-chairwoman of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, donated the vaccines valued at HK$10 million (US$1.3 million) to the autonomous region for people of the Hui ethnic group there.
At the donation ceremony Wednesday, Ma Qizhi, chairman of the regional government of Ningxia, said that the local government will give its all-out support to the program, which will help to reduce child deaths and disability from preventable diseases.
Edwin Joseph Judd, UNICEF area representative for China and Mongolia, praised the hepatitis immunization program, which “illustrates the application of China’s creative and cost-effective approach to the realization of the rights of every child, the principle of ‘prevention first’".
(China Daily 01/11/2001)
