Cabinet sets up nine steps to fight AIDS
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-06-15 23:37

China is to adopt nine major measures to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, the executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao said in Beijing yesterday.

According to the meeting, HIV/AIDS prevention and control will be regarded as a key public health issue in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

Specific funds will be included in the budgets of government at all levels for prevention and control programs, the meeting said.

China will continue to provide HIV carriers with free medical care and give free medicines to infected pregnant women to prevent the disease being passed to their babies, said a meeting report.

China is also setting up a national monitoring system for HIV/AIDS to keep abreast of new developments. Great importance has been attached to prevention work among rural residents and migrant workers.

A Chinese expert said last week that China faces a tragic surge in HIV/AIDS cases unless it curbs the spread of the disease among the country's vast transient rural workforce, estimated at about 100 million people.

Official Chinese estimates reckon there are around 840,000 people infected with HIV in the country, including 80,000 with full blown AIDS, according to a Xinhua report.

A new law has just been drafted to protect people infected with the AIDS virus in a country where discrimination against those suffering from the condition is rife, a senior Chinese health official said on Monday.

"China is still facing serious challenges in HIV/AIDS prevention and control, but the Chinese Government is determined and capable of curbing the spread of the disease to ensure people live a healthy and peaceful life," Wen said in a meeting with Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS on Monday.

(China Daily 06/16/2005 page2)