| War on AIDS a top priority
2003-09-24
China Daily
UNITED NATIONS: China has always attached great importance to HIV/AIDS
prevention and treatment, and is willing to contribute to the global fight
against the deadly affliction, a senior Chinese health official said on Monday.
Addressing the HIV/AIDS high-level meeting of the United Nations General
Assembly, Executive Vice-Minister of Health Gao Qiang said the Chinese
Government appreciates the relentless efforts and outstanding contributions made
by the United Nations in promoting global actions against HIV/AIDS.
Gao
said the Chinese Government has treated the prevention and treatment of
HIV/AIDS, a serious threat to public health and safety, as a strategic issue for
social stability, economic growth and national prosperity and security, and has
given top priority to this endeavour.
Drawing on the experience and
lessons learned in the past decade, the Chinese public health authorities have
established the principle of focusing on prevention, integrating prevention with
treatment and adopting comprehensive measures to deal with HIV/ AIDS, he
said.
The Chinese Government has also drawn up medium and long-term
strategic plans to prevent and control HIV/AIDS, while taking actions to crack
down on such criminal activities as illegal blood collecting, smuggling, drug
trafficking and prostitution, said Gao.
Meanwhile, the central and local
governments have allocated 6.8 billion yuan (US$822.2 million) to establish and
improve disease prevention and control mechanisms in various provinces, and
invested 2.25 billion yuan (US$272 million) to improve and upgrade the blood
stations in China's central and western regions.
Gao said China is now
developing a nationwide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment mechanism featuring
"government leadership, multi-sector co-operation and public
participation."
However, the minister noted that HIV/AIDS has not been
brought under effective control in China. Citing the initial analysis of a joint
HIV/AIDS epidemiological survey conducted in co-operation with the World Health
Organization (WHO) and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), he
said China has about 840,000 HIV/ AIDS infections, including 80,000 HIV/AIDS
patients.
He warned that China still faces an uphill battle in its
HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, citing a big income gap among different
regions, underdevelopment in rural areas and criminal offences like drug
trafficking and prostitution that helped spread HIV/AIDS.  |
