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Henan gets it right in war on HIV/AIDS
By Zhang Feng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-04 05:49
ZHENGZHOU: Henan Province was once the darkest spot on the nation's HIV/AIDS
landscape.
Now the province is the shining example on setting up a comprehensive
healthcare system to fight the disease.
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Nie Yong (third
from left), director of the HIV/AIDS control office of Zhumadian in
Central China's Henan Province, chats with two HIV/AIDS sufferers
(first and second from left) in Wenlou Village, one of the city's dozens
of villages seriously affected by the deadly virus.
| For 10 years, ever since the first case was reported in the mid-1990s, the
Central China province has been in the glare of national and international
media: for illegal blood sales, infections transmitted through contaminated
blood, tardy reporting of cases and poor medical care as well as the sheer
suffering of victims.
But now, the nation's most populous province, with nearly 30,000 reported
cases of HIV/AIDS, has set up a dependable system to fight the epidemic.
After years of opprobrium, says Li Zizhao, director of HIV/AIDS control
office under the Henan Provincial Health Bureau, there will be no excuses; he
will let actions speak loudly.
He described how the authorities got it right in establishing a comprehensive
care system sponsored and run by governments.
A province-wide system of epidemic surveillance, prevention, treatment and
welfare support is in place.
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