The office of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF; Doctors Without
Borders) French Section in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, said on Monday they have provided
free medical care to 260 AIDS
patients and HIV carriers in China since late 2003.
On 1 December 2003, the MSF French Section signed a two-year
agreement with the Guangxi health bureau and its center for disease
control to launch an HIV/AIDS project for residents of Nanning and
five adjacent counties. It set up a clinic to provide checkups,
outpatient care and antiretroviral therapy (ART) for 10 to 20 new
patients a month.
According to Max-Antoine Grolleron, the MSF French Section's
representative in China, 160 patients have so far received ART at
the clinic.
Last year, the clinic's outpatient care expenses totaled 6
million yuan (US$723,000) all of which were paid by MSF, according
to Huang Xiaoying, an interpreter with the MSF French section.
MSF has also been working with local hospitals to push
prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
So far, six HIV-positive women have given birth by cesarean
section, the first of them three months ago. MSF's Dr. Stefano
Manfredi said they cannot be sure whether the babies are free of
infection until they are 18 months old, but they are monitoring the
infants closely.
MSF is also creating patient support groups as part of the
network of HIV-positive people in the region.
MSF is an international humanitarian aid organization that
provides emergency medical assistance to populations in danger in
more than 80 countries. The French section began working in China
in 1996 with a medical service program in Guangxi's Rongshui
County.
MSF also operates a free HIV/AIDS clinic in Xiangfan, Hubei
Province. Most of its patients are rural subsistence farmers
with no insurance or access to a local, fee-based health care
system.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn April 19, 2005)