The regional government puts prevention first in medical work and has strengthened work towards universal examination, treatment and prevention of epidemic and endemic diseases. Beginning in the early 1960s smallpox was entirely eliminated and the incidence of a wide variety of other epidemic and endemic diseases decreased considerably.More than 88 percent of chronic active brucelliasis cases have been treated effectively through hospitalization and treatment, and incidence of morbidity and sources of epidemic infection have been essentially brought under control. The incidence of endemic goiter has dropped below 8 percent as measured by sample surveys following the introduction of iodized table salt and orally taken iodipin capsules. Medical research institutes have also made breakthroughs in the study of altitude sickness and other harmful conditions. When it comes to saving and treating those afflicted with altitude-produced pulmonary edema, comas and chronic altitude sickness, Tibetan medical workers lead the world.

Scheduled immunization work began in the 1980s. Since 1986 children throughout the region have been receiving BCG vaccine, sugar-coated anterior poliomyelitis pills, combined anti-pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus drugs and measles vaccination; the child immunization rate is 85 percent. Since the implementation of scheduled immunization, infectious disease morbidity and mortality rates have dropped by a considerable margin. Currently, there are more than 80 anti-epidemic stations and centers region wide. Women and children's health work has been similarly strengthened: 34 maternity and child care stations have been set up throughout the region, 108 hospitals at and above the county level have gynecology and obstetrics departments, and 110 key townships have maternity and child care clinics. Cervicitis, vaginitis and adnexitis and other conditions harmful to the health of Tibetan women are being efficaciously prevented and treated. Currently, 50.8 percent of babies are being delivered using new methods (100 percent in Lhasa). The maternal mortality rate has dropped from 500 per 10,000 in 1959 to 43 per 10,000 today and the infant mortality rate from 91.8 per 1,000 in 1959 to 41.62 per 1,000 in 1989.

Overall, free government-supplied medical services are available for Tibetans and other ethnic minorities. Every year increased funding goes to free medical care, raising the standard of such care given to people in rural areas. From 1992 to 1997, the Central Government and the Tibet regional government spent a total of 964.61 million yuan on health work. The government assumes the cost of all serious diseases that require hospitalization and costs of operations. Farmers and herdsmen are responsible for a portion of their medical expenses varying with their financial capacity.