BEIJING - Health workers in northwest Gansu province have been asked by the local health administration to provide health advice and related services to the public via China's Twitter-like micro blogs, which now have 195 million users.

In a month, at least 2,500 local medical personnel of both Western and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are expected to open micro blog accounts at Sina Weibo and Tencent, China's top two micro blog account providers, said Liu Weizhong, director of the provincial health department.

"It's a brand-new channel to better serve the public on health. The public can become more familiar with health issues and take better care of themselves through having more accessible interaction with doctors on micro blogs," he told China Daily on Friday.