The central government will allocate 470 million yuan (US$56.8
million) to HIV/AIDS control this year, said Vice Minister of
Health Wang Longde at a Tuesday press conference. Wang is also head
of the administration office of the AIDS Prevention Work
Committee.
The fund, up 20 percent from last year, will be distributed to
specific provinces and counties for publicity, testing and
treatment of AIDS patients and HIV carriers, and prevention
measures. In 2001, just 100 million yuan was budgeted for HIV/AIDS
control, but that was a huge increase from the 15 million yuan of
the previous years.
The number of HIV/AIDS surveillance outlets will rise from the
current 194 to 300 next year, Wang said. Official figures put the
current number of HIV carriers at 840,000, 80,000 of whom have
full-blown AIDS.
The Ministry of Health is organizing experts to draft a national
regulation on HIV/AIDS control, which is expected to be presented
to the State Council this year. The country already has a five-year
working plan and a 12-year blueprint for AIDS/HIV control.
Wang said that central China's Henan
Province is one of the areas most severely affected by the AIDS
epidemic. As of February this year, a total of 11,844 people were
confirmed HIV-positive in Henan; the most recent figure puts the
number at some 16,000.
Illegal blood collection is the primary source of the epidemic
in Henan. In the early 1990s, many low-income farmers from poorer
provinces such as Henan, Shanxi and Sichuan were infected when they
sold their blood plasma at unauthorized purchasing stations. They
then spread the virus to their spouses and partners.
Substantial changes in AIDS prevention and control have taken
place in Henan this year, said Wang, with the local government now
taking the problem very seriously. In February, the provincial
government dispatched assistance teams to 38 of the hardest-hit
villages, each of which was home to anywhere from 10 to 400
HIV-positive persons.
The teams live and work directly with the villagers, providing
physical examinations, building roads, digging wells, establishing
schools and clinics and otherwise providing assistance and
guidance.
This has made a tremendous change in the villagers' lives, the vice
minister said. In the past they were frustrated, frightened and
angry, and if any official appeared in the village they would
surround him or her to express their complaints and seek redress.
Stability and calm have returned. "During my conversations with
them, I saw the smiles on their faces really came from the bottoms
of their hearts," said Wang.
However, a great deal still needs to be done in Henan. Testing,
monitoring and education must be strengthened throughout the
province, particularly in other areas that are known to be affected
by HIV/AIDS, in order to understand fully the epidemic's
impact.
Wang cited Zhumadian City as an example. Investigation reveals
that 74,800 people there have sold blood, but only about 30,000
have been tested for HIV. "We must find the infected people as
quickly as possible and determine whether they need immediate
treatment in order to improve AIDS prevention and control," said
Wang. "I have told the local government this is its key task:
prevent and control the epidemic and save lives."
The Ministry of Health and Henan provincial government have
determined that all 16,000 confirmed HIV carriers should have their
T-cell levels checked by the end of July to ascertain who needs
immediate treatment. The 180,000 people in the province who have
sold blood should be tested for the virus by the end of
September.
(China.org.cn June 30, 2004)
