HIV/AIDS prevention and control has become a major part of China's
national economic and social development plans, according to Dr.
Yin Dakui, China’s vice-minister of Health at a press conference
Thursday sponsored by the
Information
Office of the State Council.
“The misunderstanding that AIDS only affects people on the fringes
of society should be brushed away …. It is time for the world to
wake up and declare an all-out war against this killer disease,”
Dr. Yin Dakui said.
Dr. Yin said that China’s five-year Action Plan on HIV/AIDS
initiated May 25 includes measures to control the spread of the
disease such as developing education programs, encouraging more
tolerant social views of those suffering from the disease, and
providing for better of controls of blood/plasma collection.
“It is self-evident that mankind will never win the battle against
AIDS without stronger commitment from governments, particularly in
the area of funding, as well as the active participation of all
members of society,” Dr. Yin said.
To
implement the Action Plan, China will appropriate a special fund of
100 million yuan (US$12.08 million) each year from central finance
for HIV/AIDS/STD prevention and control. An additional 950 million
yuan (US$114.76 million) will be earmarked to support the
construction of government-regulated blood banks.
Citing June 2001 statistics from the Ministry of Health, Dr. Yin
said the official number of HIV/AIDS patients on the Chinese
mainland has risen to 26,058, with a total of 1,111 AIDS cases and
584 AIDS-related deaths. Ninety-four percent of reported cases are
between the ages of 15 and 49. Most are men, with the ratio of men
to women victims being about 5:1.
“Until a cure is found, education and prevention should top the
agenda in our efforts to fight the epidemic,” Dr. Yin said, adding
that sufficient information about how the virus is transmitted
should be provided to the public to raise their awareness of the
disease.
Dr. Yin blamed intravenous drug use as the main cause of the high
HIV infection-rate reported in the Western provinces in China,
particularly
Yunnan,
Xinjiang,
Guangxi and
Sichuan.
Dr. Yin also cited the problem of the spread of HIV through
contaminated blood supplies. Of the 5 million people infected with
HIV in the past year in the world, 600,000 cases involved mothers
transmitting HIV to their children, Dr. Yin said.
Driven by economic incentives, some underground and illegal plasma
collection stations that buy blood have emerged especially in rural
areas that operate without regulation. According to reports, some
996 people contracted HIV through blood (plasma) donation from 1998
to June 2001. This amounted to six percent of the total number of
people infected with HIV in that period, Dr. Yin said.
A
more tolerant social atmosphere should be cultivated toward
HIV/AIDS patients to assure that they seek early treatment. At the
same time these people should be educated about their
responsibilities to prevent the virus from spreading, Dr. Yin
said.
(www.h5a3.com by Shan Xingmei 08/24/2001)