CHENGDU: A five-year development program to lift residents of a region of Sichuan province out of poverty and reduce the high incidence among them of a debilitating bone disease will be launched this year, a senior official has said.

The town of Maiwa in Hongyuan county in the Tibetan-Qiang autonomous prefecture of Aba, will host a pilot of a scheme that will aim to improve treatment and prevention of Kaschin-Beck disease, a rare condition that bloats the joints and causes limb deformities or dwarfism.

Speaking on Tuesday at a function to launch the program, Fan Xiaojian, chief of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said the central government will allocate 334 million yuan ($47.8 million) a year to the scheme.

Located on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Aba has a population of 874,000, of which 55 percent are ethnic Tibetans.

Due to its geographical isolation, the prefecture's economy is less-developed, with 173,900 of its people regarded as poor and 78,400 living in abject poverty with an annual net income of just 693 yuan.

The region has also reported the country's highest incidence of Kaschin-Beck disease, since it was first diagnosed there in the 1950s. More than 42,000 people in the prefecture have the disease, which has left them unable to work.

The plan, drawn up by the povery alleviation office and Sichuan provincial authorities, has three initial goals: the prevention and control of Kaschin-Beck, poverty eradication and infrastructure construction, Fan said.

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/10/2008 page3)