China is considering setting up a new State-level AIDS
prevention working committee in an effort to check the spread of
the disease.
A plan for the committee has been submitted to the State Council
and is awaiting final approval, according to sources Thursday.
The new committee will be responsible for drafting policies and
regulations for AIDS prevention, coordinating in related major
issues and mobilizing public resources used in AIDS prevention.
The establishment of the committee will improve an existing
mechanism to coordinate conferences and information among
ministries and central government departments.
Vice-Premier and Minister of Health Wu Yi will likely head the
committee. Executive Deputy Minister of Health Gao Qiang and Vice
Secretary-General of the State Council Xu Shaoshi will be
vice-directors.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health show there are
840,000 HIV/AIDS carriers on the Chinese mainland, of whom 80,000
suffer from full-blown AIDS.
As the number of HIV carriers has rapidly increased, the virus
has spread from high-risk groups like drug abusers into the wider
population.
Experts warn that more than 10 million Chinese may be
HIV-positive by 2010 unless effective countermeasures are
taken.
Minister Gao Qiang said last year that HIV/AIDS in China has not
been controlled and prevention and treatment still face tough
hurdles.
While the committee looks to coordinate and share information,
the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine is pushing
a plan that will provide free medical treatment for 3,000
impoverished HIV/AIDS patients.
With 9 million yuan (US$1.1 million) already secured, the
administration is lobbying for a further 20 million yuan (US$2.4
million) from State coffers to carry out the plan.
With those funds, traditional Chinese medicine clinics focusing
on HIV/AIDS will be set up by the end of 2005 in Henan and Hubei
provinces in central China, Hebei Province in north China, Anhui
Province in east China and Guangdong Province in south China.
The administration has already started to prepare treatments,
train doctors and arrange for the construction of the clinics.
The potential of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment
of HIV/AIDS has been tapped with unprecedented enthusiasm in recent
years. Cheaper than Western medicine, it has won a reputation for
effectively enhancing patients' immune systems, easing symptoms and
controlling the advance of the disease.
Chinese researchers and doctors hope to produce two or three new
types of traditional Chinese medicine to treat HIV/AIDS in three
years and develop relatively mature treatments.
(China Daily February 20, 2004)
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