BEIJING - China has set up a database of acute high-altitude illnesses that is world leading in terms of the number, variety, and source distribution of samples, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Daily reported on Tuesday.

The database was established by Xinqiao Hospital of the Third Military Medical University in Southwest China's Chongqing, the newspaper said.

The 20,000-strong set of body function data and blood samples was collected by more than 60 doctors and professors from the hospital who had been monitoring people traveling from the Chengdu Plain to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in various vehicles since 2011.

The database features extensive distributions with samples collected at an elevation of as high as over 6,100 meters.

The database will facilitate research in dramatically reducing the morbidity and fatality of acute high-altitude illnesses, according to the newspaper.