The nation's first provincial regulation on AIDS prevention and
research takes effect today in the southwestern province of Yunnan,
where the greatest number of Chinese infections have been
found.
The province, bordering one of the world's major drug production
sources--the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia--vowed to invest 520
million yuan (US$63 million) over the next five to ten years to
curb the rapid spread of AIDS. The sharing of contaminated syringes
by drug users is one of the primary ways the disease has been
spreading.
The regulation requires the offering of methadone treatment and
access to free unused syringes in designated communities. This is
also seen as a significant breakthrough in the province's fight
against drugs, said Cui Zhitao, the provincial government's
spokesman.
The regulation also states that AIDS-affected families will
receive condoms for free and that condom vending machines will be
installed at public entertainment and densely populated places,
such as hotels, bus and railway stations, ports, tourism spots and
construction sites.
"It cannot be inferred that the provincial government has
adopted a tolerant attitude toward drug abuse and prostitution,"
said Cui, adding the above measures are aimed at curbing the spread
of AIDS in a pragmatic way.
The regulation also prohibits doctors and health care
institutions from releasing the personal information of AIDS
patients.
There were nearly 15,000 HIV carriers in Yunnan at the end of
last year.
The figure has grown dramatically since 1989, when the first
batch of 149 HIV carriers on the Chinese mainland was found in the
province's Dehong region.
A total of 558 of Yunnan's 907 AIDS patients had died by the end
of last year. The figure accounts for more than one-quarter of all
AIDS deaths in China.
Cui said the infection rate has climbed quickly among high-risk
groups in Yunnan. About 20 percent of drug users who inject have
HIV/AIDS, while the average infection rate is 2.5 percent among sex
workers.
Cui said six major projects are planned for the next five to ten
years in order to check the rampant spread of AIDS in the province,
where 121 counties and cities have HIV/AIDS sufferers.
Additionally, the provincial government will increase efforts to
build AIDS care centers, publicize AIDS prevention material, tackle
key research projects on AIDS prevention and treatment, and clean
up the social environment by fighting against drug abuse and
prostitution.
The construction of care centers has already begun with the
opening of the first special institute providing patients with AIDS
consultation, prevention, testing and treatment in December.
All of the centers are expected to provide treatment to a large
number of HIV/AIDS sufferers, who cannot be cared for at ordinary
hospitals.
Chen Juemin, spokesman for Yunnan's Health Department, said
methadone treatment programs had been implemented in seven counties
and cities by the end of last year. By 2009, they will expand to
cover 22 areas where many HIV carriers were infected through blood
transmissions.
Methadone is a substitute narcotic used in the treatment of
heroin addiction.
(China Daily March 1, 2004)