China pledges commitment to fighting AIDS

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 23, 2003

China pledges commitment to fighting AIDS

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China has always attached great importance to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and is willing to contribute to the fulfillment of global control of HIV/AIDS, said a senior Chinese health official on Monday.

China now has about 840,000 HIV/AIDS infections, including 80,000 HIV/AIDS patients, said Executive Vice Minister of Health Gao Qiang at the HIV/AIDS High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

The figure is from initial analysis of a joint HIV/AIDS epidemiological survey conducted in cooperation with World Health Organization (WHO) and Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), according to Gao.

China is developing a nationwide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment mechanism featuring "government leadership, multi-sector cooperation and public participation", the minister told the UN meeting.

However, Gao warned that China is still faced with arduous tasks in its HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, citing a big income gap among different regions, underdevelopment in rural areas and criminal offenses like drug trafficking and prostitution that helped spread HIV/AIDS.

He pledged the Chinese government's determination to contain the prevalence and spread of HIV/AIDS, and outlined a number of measures to improve the prevention and treatment of the epidemic.

These include:

--Strengthening government efforts to fulfill its responsibility, clarifying targets, improving evaluation, supervision and monitoring and holding officials or departments incharge accountable for negligence;

--Providing free treatment and medicines for economically-strained HIV/AIDS patients in urban areas and all patients in rural areas; with the central and local governments investing more than 10 billion yuan (120 million US dollars) to strengthen the medical assistance system for people with infectious diseases;

--Improving laws and regulations, intensifying intervention against dangerous behaviors, conducting public awareness campaigns and promoting drug-free community and health sexual life;

-Protecting the legitimate rights of HIV/AIDS patients, providing them with economic aid, and opposing social discrimination against them;

--Promoting international cooperation and pledging 10 million dollars to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. ????

The General Assembly high-level meeting on HIV-AIDS opened this morning and is expected to last until late on Monday.

Representatives from more than 130 UN member states and international organizations, including 18 heads of state and government were expected to speak at the meeting.

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