US-based
Project HOPE
announced Tuesday that it will continue to assist China in
providing HIV/AIDS training for medical professionals.
Dr. John P. Howe, President and CEO of Project HOPE, said that ten
HIV/AIDS training centers are expected be established throughout
China.
Dr. Howe said that his organization intended to undertake a second
cooperative project with Wuhan University Medical School to hold a
three-day national conference on AIDS. Noted foreign and domestic
experts, including Nobel Laureate Dr. David Ho, are expected to
address physicians from throughout China on the prevention of
HIV.
The non-profit organization initiated HIV/AIDS training sessions
for 450 medical personnel in central China's Hubei Province last
June and September, and expanded the training program by "training
the trainers", or asking those trained to extend their training to
others.
The latest statistics from the Ministry of Health show that, as of
last June, the number of Chinese HIV carriers had reached one
million. Nearly 100,000 Chinese people died from the disease in the
period that preceded June 2002.
Based on the principle "To teach people to teach others, to help
people to help themselves," Project HOPE operates in 32 countries
and has been in China since 1983. Over the last two decades, the
organization has established an extensive cooperation network with
the Chinese Ministry of Health and with medical schools in the
areas of dental training, emergency care and burn and medical care
education.
More than 1,000 medics in China have received training from the
network and a total of 300,000 Chinese people, including medical
staff and patients, have benefited.
(People's Daily January 15, 2003)