Gaps found in China death reports

By Jill McGivering
BBC News

China has been accused of a lack of openness on health issues

A Chinese government probe has revealed that about a third of deaths are not properly reported by hospitals.

In addition, about a quarter of those that are reported give the wrong cause of death, Chinese state media said.

The findings will cause concern as China struggles to improve its health surveillance systems.

It has been criticised for its handling of health crises such as bird flu, Sars and HIV and for not sharing information with the international community.

Partly in response, in 2004 the Chinese government launched a nationwide surveillance system.

But this latest report suggests that even if China is more politically willing, it still does not have an accurate picture of what is happening on the ground.

'Lack of understanding'

The investigation was carried out at the end of last year by China's Ministry of Health and covered 130 medical institutions across the country.

Its findings, just published in the China Daily newspaper, are stark.

A third of deaths were not reported to the country's national surveillance system, it says. About one in five hospitals did not report any deaths at all.

Even where deaths were reported, there were often delays and mistakes. In about a quarter of cases, the cause of death given just related to symptoms, such as heart or lung failure.

A spokesman for the Health Ministry said a lack of attention and understanding of the importance of death reporting was causing a lot of difficulties for the country's control and prevention of infectious diseases.

All this will add to concerns about China's ability to monitor and report outbreaks of disease.

Just last week the Chinese government announced that a soldier who died in 2003 had had bird flu - although he died two years before China reported its first human case.

China's government admits its surveillance must improve - but it clearly has not yet achieved the accurate system it badly needs.