Profile: Li Keqiang: A man who puts people first (11)

（Xinhua）  09:46, December 24, 2012

After more than 10 years of latency, HIV broke out in a number of places in Henan, aggravating the province's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

Li visited the worst-hit villages to see patients, surveying the difficulties they faced and staying on top of the situation. Gao Yaojie, a retired doctor and AIDS activist, was invited to his office to report on the situation.

When he served as Party chief of the province in 2002, Li immediately put HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment at the top of the agenda.

In Henan, he oversaw the country' s first provincial census on HIV/AIDS.

A total of 38 hard-hit villages received assistance directly from provincial governmental departments.

To ensure that HIV and AIDS patients could live decent lives, he instituted a policy that provided them shelter, food, clothing and basic medical insurance. Those who contracted the deadly disease from selling blood on the black market could receive free treatment, free physical exams and free services to control maternal-infant transmission of the virus.

Orphans, as well as children of those with HIV/AIDS, could go to school free of charge.

By 2004, the HIV outbreak had been contained. Yin Yin Nwe, then representative of the United Nations Children's Fund for China, said Henan is a model both for China and the world and its experience is worth being popularized.