The 25 year-old woman from Wuhan, named He, travelled to a plastic surgery clinic in the country for what was described as a “routine procedure”. However, upon receiving anesthetic, He’s breathing and heart stopped. Doctors were able to resuscitate her, but she remains unconscious and is only able to breathe with the aid of a respirator.

She is now in the Intensive Care Unit of the Xiehe Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei after returning via chartered flight. She has been unconscious for 10 days.

South Korea is home to an exploding plastic surgery industry now worth over $60 billion, comprising four percent of the country’s total GDP. The Chinese Association for Plastic Surgery says 5.6 million Chinese traveled to South Korea for cosmetic surgery last year, and that complications from these surgeries are rising.

A similar incident occurred last month when a 50 year-old Chinese woman became “brain dead” as a result of a plastic surgery procedure performed in South Korea. Local media suspect the clinic, which lacked the appropriate licenses, used too much anesthetic during the operation.

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In a specially-designed room meant to simulate a karaoke bar, patient Zhang Li sits in front of a number of large glass jars containing fake drugs while hooked up to a computer that monitors heart rate and blood pressure to determine how anxious he is, and therefore how much he’s struggling to avoid the narcotics.

The rather unorthodox test is done in conjunction with psychological guidance and physical therapy that oddly includes hopscotch and dancing said to “gradually get rid of evil”.

This is Zhang’s third time in rehab. He is confident that unusual approaches such as the “karaoke temptation test” will help him to finally kick his habit. “My feeling is that this time will be different from all the other times [I’ve been to rehab] because the clinic places an emphasis on psychological triggers, making me more confident that I will be able to successfully fight against the temptation of drugs.“

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According to an article published on the official WeChat account of the Ningbo Center for Disease Control (CDC) called “Has the Wolf arrived? The AIDS Epidemic of Ningbo Students”, last year 30 students at the University contracted HIV. Although HIV can be transmitted a number of ways, 80 percent of cases at Ningbo are said to have been transmitted from male-to-male sexual contact.

Zhang Yan, the Ningbo CDC official in charge of AIDS prevention and control, published the statistics which suggested that a gay lifestyle was the root cause. Zhang said:

A lot of people think that schools are like some kind of ivory tower, and so they let down their guard (when they attend). Publishing these local statistics serves as a call to action for students to adopt a moral lifestyle and establish a healthy sexuality.

In 2013, 87.1 percent of all new AIDS cases in China were sexually transmitted, with gay men being the group most at risk. Estimates of AIDS cases in China vary from 430,000 to 1.5 million and, in 2008, AIDS became the leading cause of death by infectious disease in China, with approximately 7,000 fatalities that year.

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Public spaces means offices or other working environments as well as public transportation, schools, daycare centers, youth activity centers, gyms, historical sites, and hospitals. (Yes, up until now it wasn’t illegal to smoke inside a hospital).

While Beijing first proposed a ban in 2008, it was vigorously opposed by China’s powerful cigarette industry. China’s tobacco companies have been able to, for the most part, keep warning labels off their products and ensure cigarettes are sold at low prices. Chinese cigarette manufacturers continue to provide incentives to the government by earning huge revenues and employing a vast number of workers. It therefore remains to be seen how strictly the new smoking ban will be enforced.

China is the world leader in tobacco use, with over 300 million cigarette smokers. Cigarette use has long been entrenched in Chinese culture as a social custom, with cigarettes commonly given as gifts.

Chinese officials were banned from smoking in public places last year, while Chinese films and television programs were banned from depicting characters who smoke.

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In the grand tradition of a “girl’s night out”, Shenzhen resident Miss Jie and her friend went to Guangzhou for dinner and a spa massage treatment on February 8. However, things didn’t go according to plan when a fire broke out on Jie’s back.

Miss Jie was undergoing the Chinese practice of firecupping, something of a cross between massage and moxibustion. When undergoing firecupping, the client lies face down with their back exposed, much like when getting a massage. However, instead of manually applying pressure to the back using hands or other instruments, firecupping is used.

A combustible item is placed inside a small, glass jar, and is then ignited and extinguished in quick succession before being placed upon the client’s back. Because the remnants of the fire is still absorbing oxygen within the jar (or cup), it creates a suction when coming into contact with the victim’s skin. Firecupping is thought to provide therapeutic benefits to its users.

READ: Man Goes For A Massage In Shenzhen, Leaves Paralyzed

In Miss Jie’s case, her firecupping treatment was using alcohol as a fuel instead of paper, a more commonly used item. Miss Jie said she had been undergoing the treatment for 20 minutes when she suddenly felt something cold on her back. That “cold feeling” was alcohol coming into contact with her skin, which was then ignited by an open flame. Jie’s companion, Miss Chen, said the flames on Jie’s back reached ten centimeters tall.

The hotel at which Jie had the firecupping service performed has accepted responsibility for the accident and has agreed to pay Jie’s medical bills. General Operations Manager of the Guangzhou Shuishanfang Hotel Miss Wu admitted that the technician providing the firecupping used too much alcohol. However, Wu also added that the accident was also due to a deficiency in the cupping jar, causing it to crack and leak alcohol over Miss Jie’s back.

READ: Setting Yourself On Fire? It’s a Form of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Wu wouldn’t admit to the press that the technician was improperly qualified, saying the all technicians are internally trained. However, Wu did say that they have voluntarily suspended their company’s own certification for the time being.

Massages, firecupping, and other similar services are not expensive in China. At the Shuishanfang Hotel, Jie paid for a package deal that featured backcupping, foot massage and other services for just RMB 68.

Related:

• No Lights Off, No Private Rooms, and Other New Massage Rules in Guangdong
• Shenzhen Masseuse Beaten for Refusing to Provide Sexual Services

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The flu has gotten so bad in Hong Kong that medical authorities are warning that the death toll could reach three to four hundred.

That’s what the Hong Kong Center for Hygiene and Disease Prevention said as it revealed 118 people have died so far this year.

READ: Hong Kong Being Hit Hard by the Flu

However, that’s still not the worst news. While the health authority still urges the public to get vaccinated against the flu, they revealed that the next major shipment of flu vaccines aren’t expected to arrive in Hong Kong until March or April.

A total of 187 adults were hospitalized with the flu from January 2 to February 4 this year, most of whom suffered from type-A influenza (H3N2). Sixty-four severe cases were reported just last week. Ninety percent of the deaths from the flu are people over the age of 65.

Avian flu has also been blamed for the death of a person in Shenzhen on February 3. So far this winter, there have been ten cases of avian flu confirmed in the city.

Related:

• Avian Flu Claims Its First Fatality in Foshan
• Guangdong Hit With Six New Avian Flu Cases
• 3rd Case of Avian Flu Confirmed in Guangdong

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The Hong Kong Health Department announced that there have been 122 serious cases of the flu in the City this year, of which 64 people have died. Of the 122 cases, 56 were elderly, and nine were young children.

Public anxiety over communicable diseases has risen as avian flu continues to spread across Guangdong. Since mid January, 14 new cases of avian flu have been diagnosed, totalling 20 new cases in 2015.

Doctors admit that they expect more flu cases before the season ends, and urge residents to get the flu vaccine.

Related:

• Guangdong Hit With Six New Avian Flu Cases
• Six year-old Shenzhen Girl Contrasts H7N9 Virus
• In Defiance Of Live Poultry Ban, Another Dies of Avian Flu in Guangdong

Photo: Phoenix Weekly

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The Beijing Center for Disease Control said the outbreak began on January 22 in a downtown office building on Chaoyangmen Road in Dongcheng District. In response, 3,000 people have been vaccinated.

Despite a widespread vaccination program across China, measles outbreaks in the country tend to happen each year. In November 2006, China boldly vowed to eradicate measles by 2012. While that year marked a record low for reports of measles in China, the disease has made a huge comeback since then.

In the first five months of 2014, China reported almost 36,000 cases of measles, already surpassing the 2013 annual total of 27,646 cases. It’s also nearly six times more than the total in 2012.

However, with concerns over food safety still lingering, the public reacted with distrust to mass immunization drives in 2010, criticizing them for targeting children already covered instead of at-risk groups like migrant children.

Researchers from the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development says that’s one possible reason for the resurgence. “Migrant children have been at the forefront of China’s measles epidemic,” it said, noting the poor quality healthcare available to China’s migrants.

Cai Haodong, an expert in infectious diseases at Beijing Ditan Hospital, said: “The incidence of measles is likely to rise, mostly in adults, because China has such a large mobile population and many have missed their vaccinations.”

Another explanation may be that the vaccinations are not effective. Sayer Ji points to this study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, saying:

“The number of measles cases reported in the first 10 months of 2013 – 26,443 – was three times the number reported in the whole of 2012″. This is all the more odd considering that since 2009 “.. the first dose of measles-virus-containing vaccine has reached more than 90% of the target population”.

Other experts assert that China’s vaccines are safe to use. “China has made many efforts to increase the safety and quality of its vaccines,” said Dr Lisa Cairns, head of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) at WHO China.

Photo: China Daily

The post There’s a Measles Outbreak in Beijing Right Now, and It’s Expected to Get Worse appeared first on The Nanfang.

To all the smokers, heavy drinkers, and hardcore partiers in China: with three million deaths caused each year by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), it might be time for a lifestyle change.

According to the latest figues by the World Health Organization, more than three million people die prematurely each year in China because of NCDs, which includes lung cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

“The report is a dramatic wake-up call. There is an urgent need for strong action to stop millions of Chinese men and women from dying in their most productive years from diseases that can be prevented simply by changing common, unhealthy lifestyle habits: smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet and not enough physical activity,” Bernhard Schwartländer, WHO’s representative in China, told the China Daily.

Nearly four in ten NCD deaths among Chinese men, and three in ten (31.9 percent) among Chinese women, are premature before the age of 70, the report showed.

Not surprisingly, a lot of Chinese readers were shocked by the figures, and the topic. Following the story, #MoreThan3MillionChineseDiePrematurely#, was trending on Weibo. Perhaps not surprisingly, many stunned smokers and drinkers commented, “Gosh, I need a smoke to calm my nerves”.

Photos: Made In China

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Cancer is a major health concern in China: every minute, six people are diagnosed with the disease, while five die as a result. In 2012, a staggering 3.1 million Chinese were diagnosed with cancer.

The National Central Cancer Registry tracks incidence and type of cancer diagnosed throughout China. It has compiled its data into a graph to illustrate geographically which type of cancer an average citizen is most likely to develop. For instance, the most common cancers in Shanghai are colorectal, thyroid, and breast cancer.

Lung cancer has a high fatality rate, and is most likely to occur in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, and Yunnan, the same areas where many of China’s coal mines are concentrated. Exposure to heavy pollution is known to be a significant contributing cause of lung cancer.

No precise location is given for thyroid cancer, and is instead noted to be prominent “everywhere”. Female white-collar workers are most at risk for contracting thyroid cancer.

100,000 Chinese women develop cervical cancer each year, making up a full fifth of the world’s total cases. The areas with the highest rates are in China’s central and northern region: Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi. Higher instances of cervical cancer in these rural areas are thought to be tied to differences in standards of living, hygiene and education.

The average age of a breast cancer diagnosis in China is 48.7 years, a full ten years earlier than the average age for Western women. Breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths for Chinese women.

The highest occurrences of gastric cancers in China are in Liaoning, Shandong, Gansu, Jiangsu, and Fujian. Gastric cancers have a high fatality rate because early detection is very difficult: 70 percent of patients are often diagnosed in the mid-stages of the disease.

In the past two years, colorectal cancer diagnoses in Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu have surpassed those in Western countries. However, the highest rates of colorectal cancer diagnoses remain in Liaoning, Shandong, Gansu, Jiangsu, and Fujian.

Liver cancer is one of China’s deadliest cancers and is closely linked with alcohol consumption. It is most commonly found in any province bordering the sea, including Zhejiang, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, and Jilin among others.

Esophageal cancer is most often found in Henan, Hebei, and Shanxi. It is closely linked with diet.

Chinese doctors stress that poor health and lifestyle choices contribute to all cancers, and therefore  a quality diet and exercise is important regardless of where you live.

Here’s a map of each province of China with their most common cancers. No data was provided for Guangdong or Beijing:

Related:

• Avoid Cancer By Passing On These Famous Chinese Dishes
• As Air Quality Worsens, Lung Cancer Becomes Leading Cause of Death in Guangzhou
• Cantonese Speakers The Most Susceptible to Nose and Throat Cancer: Report

Photos: Yangtse Evening Report

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