BEIJING, Dec 1 (AFP) - China's first television documentary about AIDS has been completed and will air nationwide soon, state media Wednesday quoted the production company as saying.
The film, "Red Ribbon," was produced in east China's Zhejiang province and consists of interviews with doctors fighting AIDS in the area, the Xinhua news agency said.
The Zhejiang Provincial Health Bureau believes it will be China's first TV documentary on AIDS, part of the country's recent efforts to bring the worsening problem into the public domain.
The film will give people a basic knowledge about how HIV/AIDS is spread and make them understand that the disease can be prevented and controlled.
It was jointly produced by the Zhejiang Provincial Health Bureau, the provincial disease prevention and control center and the Zhejiang Phoenix Film and Television Publication Co., Ltd.
China's major state-run media has given blanket coverage to AIDS in the run-up to World AIDS Day Wednesday.
In the past they had been barred from such explicit reporting, including about a scandal involving poor farmers contracting the virus from selling blood in unsanitary, government-backed schemes.
China has maintained that it has an estimated 840,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers although international AIDS experts say the actual number is much higher.
The United Nations predicts China could have 10 million cases by 2010 if action is not taken.
Zhejiang has 811 known HIV carriers, 125 of whom have AIDS, according to the provincial health bureau. Many provinces also do not know the real figure.
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