China marks AIDS day, faces uphill battle
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-02 07:38

China marked World AIDS Day with public awareness campaigns and a vow to keep HIV cases under 1.5 million, but experts said the country still faces an uphill battle in dealing with the crisis.

Panel discussions were held throughout the world's most populous nation, including at universities.

A resident signs on a banner to promote the prevention of HIV/AIDS in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province November 30, 2005. [Xinhua]

State-television aired continuous public awareness programs about AIDS.

Newspapers splashed stories about the plight of people living with AIDS, especially farmers who contracted the HIV virus when they sold blood from the 1980s to 1990s.

The government also launched a program to promote AIDS prevention among the millions of migrant workers who move around the country, with health officials visiting construction sites to show videos and hand out pamphlets.

Volunteers also distributed free condoms to taxi drivers.

There are about 840,000 HIV-positive people in China, official statistics show.

Health Minister Gao Qiang told a press conference on the eve of World AIDS Day that the government would be able to achieve its long-term goal of keeping the number of HIV patients to under 1.5 million by 2010.

Government spending on AIDS prevention has risen to 800 million yuan (99 million US dollars) this year, up significantly from 100 million yuan in 2002, according to official figures.

Experts said China has done a lot to seriously address the problem, but faces a long road ahead.

"My overall assessment is things overall are going in a good and positive direction but you're not going to expect everyone to be bought in," said a US AIDS expert in Beijing who did not want to be named.

"This is going to be a long and arduous process to get people to turn their heads and turn their hearts."

Health Minister Gao Qiang gave an encouraging sign on Wednesday when he publicly urged people to get tested for HIV and said the government should conduct an investigation on how many people got infected through transfusions.

Experts said this was the first time a top Chinese official had done so.

And despite President Hu Jintao shaking hands with an AIDS patient and Premier Wen Jiabao visiting an AIDS village over the past two years, discrimination remains strong.

China Central Television's news channel Thursday showed a boy with AIDS in north China's Liaoning province prevented from going to school.

Officials set up a desk for him in a government office and provided a personal teacher for him, but despite top leaders' vows to fight discrimination, there was no attempt to desegregate the boy.

He was shown saluting the flag alone, just 20 meters (yards) from the school he could not attend.