China medical news headlines for Saturday 25th January

Bribery and medical profiteering targeted in new campaign
Chinese authorities have launched a major national campaign targeting bad practices in medical services, including excessively high prices for drugs. According to the Global Times the reform campaign will stress better monitoring of drug production and marketing and address inappropriate practices within medical institutions and among medical practitioners. Medical ethics will be further promoted, and bribery in marketing of drugs will be addressed. Deaprtments taking part include the National Health and Familiy Planning Commission. The campaign calls for violators to be identified and cases of bad medical practice to be punished  in a serious way.

STDs a major problem in sex workers
Urgent efforts are needed to tackle the high rates of sexually transmitted diseases among prostitutes in Jiangsu, researchers say. A study of sex workers in Yangzhou and Changzhou found that 15% were infected with chlamydia, 5% had gonnorhoea, 5% had syphilis and 0.2% had HIV infection. The findings are published in PLOS One.

Dietary advice for obese students
Shanghai students should be given dietary advice and better access to health food at school to combat the rising trend in obesity, a political adviser has suggested. According to Shanghai Daily, Chen Lei said 17% of Shanghai school students were obese, three times the national average. Over half of the parents he surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with lunch provided by schools, which often included fried food such as pork and chicken.

Fujian hospital chief arrested for bribery
The president of a hospital in Fujian province has been removed from his post for accepting bribes. ECNS reports that Lu Kaiming, who also served as the vice chairman of the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the city of Sanming, has been detained and investigated for law infringement and serious disciplinary violations. Authorities have confiscated his illegal gains and he will be transferred to a local judicial organ for his alleged crime.