China Teaches HIV Prevention on AIDS Day

Health workers took to the streets in China’s capital on Monday to teach HIV prevention as World AIDS Day began in the world’s most populous country, whose communist leaders have promised an aggressive battle – and more openness – to fight the disease.

The government has been sluggish for years about disclosing the extent of AIDS here, or broaching the topic in the media.

But the harsh international response after the government’s initial secrecy during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome earlier this year has apparently prompted a more open approach to AIDS.

State-run newspapers on Monday were filled with articles on AIDS and World AIDS Day activities. The government’s national midday newscast also highlighted the event.

Citing a new survey by the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization and UNAIDS, The China Daily newspaper said 840,000 people in China were HIV-positive and 80,000 had developed AIDS.

It was the first time China has investigated the extent of the disease using international standards and methods, the paper quoted Hao Yang, an official with the Health Ministry’s Disease Control Department, as saying.

Chinese officials and the United Nations have warned that 10 million people could be infected by 2020 without better prevention.

Health workers in the capital, Beijing, on Monday fanned out to construction sites and schools to teach AIDS-prevention methods, and to try to dispel the stigma of the illness.

At a site near the Foreign Ministry, representatives from the Beijing Center for Disease Control handed brochures and condoms to workers – who clamored for their share. Some left with fistfuls of prophylactics after hearing a worker describe how they should be used.

Drug abuse has been blamed as the main HIV culprit in China – but thousands have also been infected by syndicates selling tainted blood, especially in central China.

Executive Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang warned last month that the country was falling short in its fight against AIDS – a striking admission of official shortcoming that suggests new openness.

“China is still faced with arduous tasks,” he was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Gao promised that 5,000 poor HIV and AIDS patients would receive free treatment starting this year. Health officials say this will rise to 40,000 by 2008.

As of September, Beijing had 1,562 reported HIV-positive people and 143 AIDS cases, health officials said last week.

“There has been a clear increase of AIDS patients in recent years,” said Deng Xiaohong, deputy director of Beijing’s Municipal Health Bureau.

The number of AIDS sufferers also increased in Shanghai, Xinhua said, citing Peng Jing, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Administration.

As of November, 886 people were infected with the disease, Peng said. The number of new cases – 170 people – was up more than 6 percent from last year.