Where health is patriotism. Visit of New Zealand medical delegation to China: 20 August-9 September 1974.

PIP: At the invitation of the Chinese government a New Zealand delegation visited the People's Republic of China to observe medical administration and public health. The use of "barefoot doctors" and the integration of western and traditional medicine has led to a revision of the organization of medical care. Acupuncture has been implemented for anesthesia, diagnosis, treatment and drug addiction. Herbal medicine, treatment of fractures and burns and cupping and mixibustion are additional methods of treatment employed with success by the Chinese. The emphasis on preventive medicine has led to education of the people and "barefoot doctors" and to the elimination of various pests such as flies, mosquitoes, rats, bedbugs the semination of a wide range of endemic bacterial and viral diseases such as plague, cholera and leprosy and the elimination of diseases such as malaria, hookworm and venereal diseases. Population control is emphasized in schools (premarital sex is strongly disapproved of) and through the revolutionary philosophy that women can only gain equality when they are freed from endless childbearing. Birth rates have been reduced to 6.5 per 1000 in urban Shanghai. Medical training has been shortened to 3 1/2 years and is taught with the philosophy that it will be used to serve the people.^ieng