Important note: Information in this article was accurate in November 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date. |
AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, November 17, 2003
Staff Medical Writers
China's government over the past year has acknowledged that AIDS is spreading rapidly in the country, and Thompson said officials he met with, including Executive Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang, had been "very responsive" to his concerns about the epidemic. They admitted to past mistakes in handling the crisis, but said they were planning a new AIDS prevention, treatment, and education campaign, Thompson said.
"We are worried that if the epidemic grows in India and China like it has in sub-Saharan Africa, it may be then too late to ever contain it or be able to hopefully some day defeat it with a vaccine and a cure," Thompson said.
China long hid its AIDS problem as a national shame, but officials last year said an estimated 1 million Chinese were infected with HIV. Officials say numbers infected could rise to 10 million by 2010 without effective action.
India, with about 300 million fewer people than China, has about 4.5 million people infected.
Thompson urged top Chinese leaders to speak publicly about AIDS, coordinate between government departments in combating its spread and implement policies forcefully.
"If it becomes an epidemic in China like it has in Southern Africa then we're going to be in big trouble," Thompson said.
Along with more openness about the problem, China has begun looking to the international community for help in fighting AIDS. The country was recently awarded a US$21 million grant from the United Nations Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which is part of Thompson's department, last year gave China a US$14.8 million grant to China's Center for Disease Control.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has opened an office in Beijing and Thompson said his department will station an attache at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in January.
Despite increased candor over AIDS at the national level, however, local Chinese officials continue to cover up their AIDS cases and silence calls for more awareness.
Human rights groups say authorities in Henan province, where the problem is particularly acute, arrested provincial health official Ma Shiwen in August after he distributed a report on the spread of AIDS due to the unsanitary blood-selling industry that was reportedly backed by health officials.
Thompson declined to criticize Chinese policies, saying he had seen "a lot of positive progress over the past few months" over AIDS.
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
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