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UNAIDS chief warns China over disease 'time bomb'SCMP - Monday, May 24, 2004 AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Beijing Updated at 6.05pm: The United Nations' top official on HIV/Aids on Monday urged China to act immediately to defuse a "time bomb" with the country's number of new infections doubling in two years. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, also warned that the problem was likely to spread from China's rural areas to its booming cities. "There is a fantastic opportunity to avert a major epidemic, (but) I think it's a time bomb ticking, particularly because this epidemic arrives at a moment of great transformation of Chinese society," Mr Piot told APF in an interview. Up to now, China's HIV/Aids epidemic has been concentrated in the poorest and most marginalized populations such as farmers in central provinces who had to sell blood to make a living, or drug addicts in southwest Yunnan province. But Mr Piot warned it threatens to spread to the general population. "I think it's most probable that in those provinces where they are the engines of economic development, that we will see the most Aids," Mr Piot said on an annual visit to China. "Entrepreneurs, people who are into business and will take risks, they are also sexual risk-takers - more mobility, opportunities for sex. That's also a message to the leaders, the same people who are the engines for economic development; they're the ones who are most at risk for Aids." Although the total number of infected in China - 840,000 according to widely questioned official estimates - is small compared to the population, the situation was "serious" because of the rapid rise in infections, Mr Piot said. The number of new cases that were reported doubled to 21,000 last year from 10,000 in 2002, Mr Piot said. "Just like the economy is the highest growth of GDP, well it's one of the highest growth of HIV infection. The doubling of number of diagnosed cases, not too many countries have that," Mr Piot said. He urged China to learn from countries like Russia and Indonesia where a small number of infections in localised populations quickly mushroomed in a short period and spread to the rest of the country. "It's act now or pay later," Mr Piot said. "The longer one waits, the more expensive it is, the more people will die, the more complicated it becomes to contain the epidemic, so the top priority should really be preventing the 99.9 percent of Chinese who are not infected from becoming infected." posted by cbs on Monday, May 24, 2004 Reports: Shanghai to provide free Aids treatment for needySCMP - Wednesday, May 19, 2004 ASSOCIATED PRESS in Shanghai Updated at 5.23pm: The mainland's biggest city, will provide free or discounted Aids treatment to its poor, state media reported on Wednesday, citing alarm over the rapid spread of the disease among young adults in the city. The city will cut or abolish charges for Aids treatment for farmers and other needy patients, the Wen Hui Daily and other newspapers reported. They cited officials as saying that 195 new cases of HIV infection were confirmed last year in the city of 20 million people and that people aged 20 to 40 were the most commonly affected. China's central government in April ordered local authorities to supply free AIDS testing and treatment for the poor, but didn't say how it would be financed in less-developed areas. The standard therapy for treating Aids patients costs 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan (HK$28,250 to HK$47,083) a year - far beyond the means of most Chinese. Even in prosperous Shanghai, the country's business capital, the average income per person is only 14,868 yuan a year. China says 840,000 of its people are HIV-positive and 80,000 have full-blown Aids, although the true figure is believed to be far higher. Shanghai reported 911 people with HIV and 51 deaths from Aids last year. Aids in China was once limited mainly to victims of unsanitary blood-buying schemes or people infected through prostitution or intravenous drug use. But officials warn that it is now spreading from high-risk groups to the general population. The UN Aids agency says the number of infected people in China could rise to 10 million by 2020 without more aggressive prevention efforts. Aids activists have criticised the Chinese government for being slow to acknowledge the extent of the disease in the country. Details for implementing the new policies in Shanghai have yet to be worked out, the reports said. They said pregnant women will receive free HIV testing, treatment and guidance, and free tests will be provided to residents seeking them. The government is also considering providing clean syringes for drug addicts and stepping up promotion of condom use, the reports said. posted by cbs on Thursday, May 20, 2004 Highest Number of AIDS Infections in SingaporeSingapore last year recorded the highest number of new HIV/AIDS infections since the disease first appeared in the country in 1985, the Healt Ministry said. A total of 242 people were disnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2003, exceeding the 2001 high of 237 new infections, according to the latest ministry statistics received via e-mail on May 17, 2004. Prosperous Singapore has not been hit as hard by AIDS as some of its South-east Asia neighbors thanks to its modern medical system and government sponsored information compaigns. However, the latest statistics indicate that "prevention efforts have failed", said Benton Wong, vice-president of the Singapore-based Action for AIDS advocacy group. "Weneed mass public campaigns with effective messages about concom use," Mr. Wong said, adding that existing campaigns are not reaching those most at risk. Most of the infections were reported by single heterosexual men and acquired through sexual transmission, the statistics showed. Women reported 30 of the 242 new infections. Homosexuals accounted for 16% of new cases, bisexuals 6% and intravenous drug users 2%, while one infection from mother to child was recorded. The latest infection bring to 2,075 the total number of cases recorded since 1985 in Singapore. Source: Bangkok Post, May 18, 2004 posted by Prawate on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 China turns to traditional medicine to treat AidsSCMP - Tuesday, May 4, 2004 AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Beijing Updated at 4.02pm: The Chinese province worst-hit by HIV/Aids is turning to traditional Chinese medicine because Western-style drugs proved to have too many side-effects and were too expensive, state media said on Tuesday. Central Henan province, which has at least 35,000 HIV/Aids patients, will kick off a campaign next month to promote traditional medicines as a way to fight the disease, the China Daily said. Efforts will be targeted mainly at the area's vast countryside, where most of Henan's HIV/Aids carriers live. The decision to use traditional medicine comes 10 months after China launched a programme to provide free anti-retroviral drugs to thousands of Aids-stricken farmers. Health officials have since admitted the drugs are old, less effective versions, and around 20 per cent of patients have stopped taking them because of severe side-effects. Newer drugs are too expensive. While patent expiration for major Aids-treatment medicines has lowered the annual treatment costs for an Aids patient in China to less than 20,000 yuan, it is still far beyond the means of the average Chinese. The report said the new scheme would be launched at selected hospitals in the province. Teams will also be established to explore the potential of treating Aids and HIV with traditional Chinese medicines. Lin Ruichao, director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Beijing-based National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceuticals and Biological Products, was cited as saying there was "great potential" for traditional Chinese medicines to help treat HIV/Aids. So far though only one traditional medicine - Tangcaopian - has won a State Food and Drug Administration licence to be used to treat the disease. Most of Henan's HIV/Aids patients were infected through blood transfusions at illegal blood donor stations. While the government says 35,000 people are infected in Henan, experts estimate at least one million farmers in the province alone contracted HIV/Aids in the blood trade. No-one has ever been held responsible. posted by cbs on Wednesday, May 05, 2004 |
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