In 2005, China's health undertakings made great progress in terms of the scale and standard. By the end of 2005, there were 300,000 health institutions, including 60,000 general hospitals and health centers, 2,964 maternity and child care institutions and 1,470 specialized health institutions. General hospitals and health centers had 3.07 million beds. There were 4,456,000 health workers in China, including 1,938,000 practicing doctors and assistant practicing doctors and 1,340,000 registered nurses. The country also had 3,592 epidemic disease prevention centers (stations) with a staff of 161,000 people, and 1,925 health monitoring institutions with a staff of 38,000 people. There were 40,000 rural health care centers, offering 653,000 beds and employing 848,000 medical workers. A total of 671 counties/cities conducted experiments with a new rural cooperative medical care system, covering 177 million farmers. H5N1 avian flu cases were reported in 13 provinces and autonomous regions, with seven people infected and five dead as of the end of 2005.