Communicable disease control in China: From Mao to now

Hipgrave, David

Village doctors bring curative care, knowledge and a public health approach to the masses After the disastrous Great Leap period, Mao retreated into the political background and China entered a period of relative political quiet in the early 1960s. Collectivization was relaxed and the patriotic health campaigns continued. EPSs grew in number, reaching around 2500 by 1965 (7), and vertical CDC programs expanded. With a return to food security (albeit with rationing), population growth resumed and life expectancy continued to grow (1). However, unhappy with his perception that the revolution was faltering, development was slowing and that his own political star was fading, in 1966 Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, throwing China into a ten-year period of political and economic chaos. The Revolution was characterized by mass mobilization of urban youth against author- ity, closure of higher education institutions and a "return to the countryside" policy to pursue revolution as an abstract concept (6) .