Officials in eastern Shandong province have denied claims made in a recent Weibo post that hundreds of thousands of residents of the area are forced to take drugs as part of a medical experiment.

The post, which has been widely forwarded and sparked fierce debate on the Internet, said more than 200,000 residents in Linqu County were taking unknown drugs delivered by the local health department, and some residents suspect they are part of a medical experiment.

"The event may be driven by profits, some departments or officials ignoring people's health, we need to find out the truth," wrote an Internet user going by the name Baihuasan on Sina Weibo, China's most popular Twitter-like microblog.

Thousands of netizens have since forwarded the post and voiced concern about people in the county.

However, the mass use of drugs in Linqu County is voluntary and is an attempt to battle gastric diseases prevalent in the area, according to officials and some local residents.

NO FORCIBLE REQUIREMENT

"From Dec. 30 to Jan. 8, I have taken free drugs for 10 days. I had a health checkup and took the drugs voluntarily," said Dou Yuling, whose home is in Xujiashangzhuang village.

Dou was one of 185 villagers to receive the medicine in Xujiashangzhuang. And most of the villagers interviewed by Xinhua reporters said they all took the medicine of their own accord.

According to Wang Wenxiao, chief of the village's Communist Party committee, the health department of Linqu county supplied free medicine for some villagers to reduce incidences of gastric diseases.

"Villagers between 25 to 55 years old received health checkups before taking medicine, and 185 of them were diagnosed with helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, which would cause gastric cancers or other gastrosias," said Wang.

A similar situation seemed to be playing out neighboring villages as well.

"I've taken the free pills for 10 days, and I feel better now," said Chen Wanlu, a neighborhood Communist Party committee official in Linqu county, who has suffered from gastric diseases for many years.

However, a few villagers said they had some adverse reactions to the treatment, including dizziness, thirst and sickness.

INTERNATIONAL TREATMENT PROJECT

"The four kinds of medicine that the people took were omeprazole, tetracycline, metronidazole and bismuth potassium citrate, which are all regular prescriptions for gastric diseases, not new testing drugs," said Wang.

In June 2010, Beijing Cancer Hospital, the International Digestive Cancer Alliance and the Technical University of Munich jointly launched an intervention project for mass H. pylori infection, aiming to treat 200,000 residents in the area of Linqu County within two to three years.

"Linqu County is a place with high gastric cancer incidence in east China, with the incidence rate here being about two times the average in the country," said Zhang Lian, a professor with Beijing Cancer Hospital who is in charge of the project and has been working in Linqu more than 20 years.

Zhang said that Beijing University and Linqu's health department have worked together to do long-term research into gastric diseases since 1983. And researches' results showed that the high infection rates of H. pylori are the main causes of gastric diseases and cancers in the area.

"So we launched free health checkups and treatment for the masses, and promote the research in an intensive way," said Zhang.

"People will sign an informed consent form before they take medicine without enforcement, all the checkups and treatments are based on individual agreement, and they can give up the treatment anytime," said Zhang.

The medication notice of Dou Yulin, issued by Beijing Cancer University and the Health Bureau of Linqu County shows that she has been diagnosed with an H. pylori infection, which will cause gastric cancer and other gastric diseases, and affect her whole body chronically.