The launch of China’s first patient-assistance program boosting drug availability for needy patients with systematic lupus erythematosus was announced in Shanghai.

Treatment costs for the disease are high. Annual medical bills for SLE patients in Shanghai last year ranged from 34,000 yuan (£3,843) to 107,000 yuan (£12,100)..

"Many patients are in financial crisis due to the disease and some have to quit taking medication due to the expense,” said Hu Ningning from China Primary Healthcare Foundation.

A Chinese husband was forced to pass up treatment for cancer so that his wife and daughter could both receive the medical care they needed.

Ke Meinan, 42, was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2015 and his 46-year-old wife Wang Huaying diagnosed with breast cancer a month later.

But when their 16-year-old daughter was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus, the family, from the eastern province of Jiangxi, realised that they could not afford to pay for all three of them to be treated.