Urban and Rural Medical Care Network. There were only two small-scale, simply equipped government-operated medical institutions in old Tibet, and they were both located in Lhasa. Today a medical care network is beginning to take shape throughout the length and breadth of Tibet. In 1998 the region had 1,004 medical institutions, 6,512 hospital beds, and 8,087 professionally trained medical and health personnel. For every 1,000 people, there were 2.67 hospital beds, 2.09 doctors and 0.7 nurses. Medical and health insti-tutions above the county level are equipped with commonly used medical facilities. Hospitals in most counties have X-ray machines, ECO machines, ultrasonic diagnostic equip-ment, operating tables, astral lamps, multi-use surgical kits and ambulances, and some counties also have B-type ultra-sonic diagnostic equipment and fiber gastroscopies.
　　Preventing and Curing Diseases. The regional gov-ernment puts prevention first in medical work and has streng-thened work towards universal examination, treatment and prevention of epidemic and endemic diseases. Beginning in the early 1960s smallpox was entirely eliminated and the in-cidence of a wide variety of other epidemic and endemic di-seases decreased considerably. More than 88 percent of chro-nic active brucelliasis cases have been treated effectively through hospitalization and treatment, and incidence of mor-bidity and sources of epidemic infection have been essenti-ally brought under control. The incidence of endemic goiter has dropped below 8 percent as measured by sample surveys following the introduction of iodized table salt and orally taken iodipin capsules. Medical research institutes have also made breakthroughs in the study of altitude sickness and other harmful conditions. When it comes to saving and treat-ing those afflicted with altitude-produced pulmonary edema, comas and chronic altitude sickness, Tibetan medical wor-kers lead the world.
Scheduled immunization work began in the 1980s. Sin-ce 1986 children throughout the region have been receiving BCG vaccine, sugar-coated anterior poliomy-elitis pills, combined anti-pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus drugs and meas-les vaccination; the child immunization rate is 85 percent. Since the implementation of scheduled immunization, infec-tious disease morbidity and mortality rates have dropped by a considerable margin. Currently, there are more than 80 anti-epidemic stations and centers regionwide. Women and chil-dren9s health work has been similarly strengthened: 34 ma-temity and child care stations have been set up throughout the region, 108 hospitals at and above the county level have gynecology and obstetrics departments, and 110 key town-ships have maternity and child care clinics. Cervicitis, va-ginitis and adnexitis and other conditions harmful to the health of Tibetan women are being efficaciously prevented and treated. Currently, 50.8 percent of babies are being delivered using new methods (100 percent in Lhasa). The maternal mortality rate has dropped from 500 per 10,000 in 1959 to 70 per 10,000 today and the infant mortality rate from 91.8 per 1,000 in 1959 to 41.62 per 1,000 in 1989.
Overall, free government-supplied medical services are available for Tibetans and other ethnic minorities. Every year increased funding goes to free medical care, raising the stan-dard of such care given to people in rural areas. From 1992 to 1997, the Central Government and the Tibet regional gov-ernment spent a total of 964.61 million yuan on health work. The government assumes the cost of all serious diseases that require hospitalization and costs of operations. Farmers and herdsmen are responsible for a portion of their medical ex-penses varying with their financial capacity.
　　Tibetan Medicine. The regional government supplied capital for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region Hospital of Tibetan Medicine and six prefectural-level hos-pitals of Tibetan medicine, an addition of more than 350 hos-pital beds for patients receiving Tibetan medical treatment. Some counties have hospitals of Tibetan medicine and most county-level hospitals have a Tibetan medicine department with its own hospital beds. Every year, over 500,000 people seek medical treatment in these hospitals. A college and a research institute of Tibetan medicine have been established to continue and develop this traditional medical art. The gov-ernment encourages veteran doctors of Tibetan medicine to write books summarizing their precious experiences. The fa-mous Four- Volume Medical Code has been published in a new edition along with scores of newly compiled or wriffen teaching materials and treatises including The Complete Four-Volume Medical Code Wall Chart Series, the '~Tibetan Medicine " volume ofthe Encyclopedia ofMedicine, Tibetan Medicine Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology, and Bro-matology, and the New Compilation of Tibetan Medicine. In recent years research specialists in Tibetan medicine has qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed more than 1,000 plants used in Tibetan medicine to determine their specific name, pharmacological components, functions and effects, and their proper use and dosage, with the result that Tibetan medicine has become more standardized and scientific. At present, there are three fairly large factories producing Tibe-tan pharmaceuticals. In addition, some prefectural- and coun-ty-level Tibetan medicine hospitals and Tibetan medicine departments in other hospitals themselves have the capacity to produce Tibetan pharmaceuticals. The particular efficacy of traditional Tibetan patent medicines such as Tsodru 70 In-gredients, Tsodru Tashel, Yunying 25 Ingredients and Chan-gior in treating common and stubborn illnesses has been pro-ven through modern laboratory analysis and clinical obser-vation. Combined treatment with Tibetan and Western medicine has produced cures in 73 percent of chronic atrophic gastritis cases.