Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - AIDS is extensive in China

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Published by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY

Saturday, August 25, 2001
AIDS is extensive in China
Official: Country is facing an epidemic
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
New York Times News Service
   BEIJING - Departing from the Chinese government's general reticence on the subject of AIDS, a senior official openly admitted Thursday that China was facing an epidemic that threatened to outpace government efforts to control it.
   The official, Deputy Health Minister Yin Dakui, also conceded the government's failure to develop effective education programs and the tendency of some local officials to cover up the extent of infection in their jurisdictions, allowing the disease to spread unchecked.
   "Like many other countries we are also facing a very serious epidemic of HIV-AIDS," Yin said, adding that the government had "not effectively stemmed the epidemic."
   New statistics
   Yin's 90-minute news conference - the first by a top Chinese official on the topic - was the latest in a series of small steps suggesting that China is ready to address more openly a topic that has been mostly taboo.
   At Thursday's news conference, Yin insisted that China's epidemic of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was still relatively small - but he also released some alarming new statistics.
   Reported HIV infections rose 67.4 percent in the first six months of 2001 compared with the same period last year, he said.
   And about 5 percent of drug users in China are now infected with HIV, up from less than 0.5 percent in 1995.
   Prevention spending
   In response, the government has decided to spend about $12 million annually for AIDS prevention and control, he said, as well as more than $117 million this year to improve blood safety. (By comparison, the U.S. government has budgeted $744 million for HIV prevention in fiscal year 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
   Sensitive aspects
   More important, though, Yin addressed some of the politically sensitive aspects of the AIDS problem, touching on China's shortcomings in dealing with the crisis forcefully and in time.
   He also discussed, for the first time, an AIDS epidemic covered up in Henan province, where tens of thousands of poor farmers have contracted AIDS by selling their blood using unsterilized practices.

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND