INTERVIEW-China officials still prejudiced on AIDS
Source: Reuters
By Lucy Hornby BEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party should educate its cadres to combat prejudices about AIDS that are still engrained in the lower ranks, a top health official said. China planned to increase the amount it spends on awareness, prevention, testing and treatment, vice minister of health Wang Longde told Reuters in a rare interview. "I think we need to open the leadership's minds, especially at the lower levels," said Wang, who has pushed the bureaucracy to be more forward-looking. "There is still a certain degree of prejudice at the grassroots level." AIDS was a taboo subject in China until recent years. The government's slowness to acknowledge the epidemic contributed to its spread, especially when millions of people sold blood to unsanitary clinics in the 1990s. The health ministry has said reported HIV/AIDS cases in China jumped by nearly 30 percent to more than 183,000 this year. The Chinese government would allocate increased money for AIDS prevention, Wang said, without giving a specific figure. "The amount from the central treasury has already risen from 150 million yuan ($19.1 million) in 2000 to 830 million yuan this year. On the local level, it's gone from basically nothing to 250 million yuan," he said. China still needed to expand testing programmes to identify more HIV carriers so as to provide them with free treatment and to step up interventions among high-risk groups, Wang said. "International experience has shown that if intervention measures fail to cover 60 percent of high-risk groups, it will be very hard to prevent the epidemic from spreading to the general public," he said. AWARENESS Chinese media have reported sympathetically on villagers ostracised when their neighbours discovered they had the disease, which still carries a social stigma. But training was still needed for local officials who carry out national programmes, said Wang, adding: "If they don't understand our policies the implementation will be problematic." To mark World AIDS Day on Friday, Chinese Central Television (CCTV) is to air "A Closer Walk", an acclaimed foreign documentary on AIDS that premiered in 2003. It had previously been banned from public viewing in China. CCTV's version has additional content, including interviews with Wang and the story of a Chinese toddler. Two brief soundbites from Tibet's spiritual godking, the Dalai Lama, whom China considers a separatist, were clipped out. Independent Chinese AIDS activists often run afoul of Chinese authorities wary of organisations they cannot directly control. Activist Hu Jia has been under house arrest for four months. "I am not clear on the details of this particular case. But in principle the central government will support any citizen who fights to prevent AIDS," Wang said.
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