Rural health care system in China has disintegrated, increasing the cost of treatment by 400-500 per cent from 1990 to 1997, states a United Nations report. Healthcare in several rural areas is so expensive that residents suffer from chronic infections and risk childbirth at home. They have stopped seeing doctors except in extreme emergencies. Health statistics are beginning to reflect the grim situation. The number of tuberculosis cases has quadrupled in 15 years. After a gap of four decades, infant mortality has also been reported among poor people.

The collapse of the traditional system of medicine is cited as one of main reasons behind many families falling in the