Free treatment for TB patients

Shanghai - Free treatment will be available to people who have drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis and to those who have not recovered from the disease after previously receiving treatment in Shanghai, local authorities have revealed.

The policy will initially be carried out among local residents, starting this year. It will then expand to include migrant workers, who account for more than 80 percent of the city's 8,000 new cases of TB each year, said Zhang Zhongshun, a TB specialist at the Shanghai Pulmonary Disease Hospital.

Zhang announced the information at a conference held by the Shanghai Pulmonary Medicine Association and the Shanghai Pulmonary Disease Hospital over the weekend to mark the World Tuberculosis Day, which falls on Wednesday.