| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 16, 2001 |
China Faces Up to Deadly Desease--AIDS |
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China plans to launch its first trial project that uses methadone, a narcotic, to replace the cocaine and heroin in a bid to limit the spread of HIV virus among drug users.
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China plans to launch its first trial project that uses methadone, a narcotic, to replace the cocaine and heroin in a bid to limit the spread of HIV virus among drug users.
Li Jianhua, deputy director with the Yunnan Institute for Drug Abuse, introduced the project at China's first national AIDS & STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease) conference. The project is expected to start next year and run for one to two years.
This project was one of the efforts the country is taking or will take to fight against AIDS as the country's HIV-infected population is estimated to total at least 600,000.
"Drug users can 'eat' methadone instead of inject it and this will reduce the risk of spreading HIV as addicts usually share injectors," Li said.
Drug InfectionAbout 68 percent of HIV-positive population in China was infected when taking drug, according to the figure of the Ministry of Health.
Experts also noted that HIV virus will not go round so rapidly among drug users if unpolluted injectors are available.
"What we are doing to prevent AIDS sometimes conflict with people's common ideas," said Wu Zunyou, expert with the Ministry of Health, "For example, some have said that drug users will be encouraged if more injectors are easy to get."
"But I believe that the conflicts will fade with building-up of the public awareness of AIDS threat," he said.
Increasing AwarenessThe condom promotion mirrors the opening up of Chinese society. The traditional Chinese culture used to regard any sex-related topics as a shame in open discussion. And now condoms are easy to have at some supermarkets in big cities like Beijing.
China's latest five-year action plan to curb the AIDS/HIV epidemic vowed to improve the marketing network of condoms and carry out education on how to properly use them.
The change are mainly attributed to increasing awareness that using condoms is an effective method to prevent HIV virus from transmitting through sex.
Little KnowledgeHowever, the number of people caught by AIDS through sexual intercourse has increased these years. Prof. Zeng Yi, Academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, warned that it will continue to grow in the coming years.
Some groups with high-risk behavior, such as prostitutes, still have little knowledge to protect themselves from HIV, said Wu Zhunyou. The condom promotion in this group is going on but slowly.
"Bias remains a major stumbling stone," said Zhang Beichuan, a doctor from the east China's port city of Qingdao. He has been engaged in pioneering AIDS education and awareness programs for gay men since the middle 1990s.
"AIDS education is still weak among homosexuals and keeps edging now due to both the bias and the public's reluctance to face the issue," he said.
The gay community, which can be prone to high-risk behavior for AIDS, is making efforts to promote education themselves and achieved positive effects but experts noted that the sparkles will fade away if the society offers no support.
Among China's 600,000 HIV-positive population, only 28,133 are confirmed by the health authorities and nearly half of them are not engaged with doctors.
"This means about 570,000 people do not know they are infected or keep this secret," Wu Zhunyou said, "They may spread the epidemic to more people."
During the conference, doctors and health officials like Wu kept calling for a more favorable and open environment for AIDS patients so that they are willing to step out of the shadow and turn for help.
China still have the last chance to save millions of lives by preventing an HIV epidemic in the world's most populous nation, Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said Wednesday.
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