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Policies on AIDS battle right - official
By Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-18 08:33

Executive director of UNAIDS Peter Piot said China has made tremendous progress in HIV/AIDS prevention and control, but much still remains to be done in the implementation of its polices in all provinces.

"The policies adopted at the central level are exactly what we need to deal with HIV/AIDS, but implementation in every province is still a problem," Piot told a conference at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Wednesday.

He said the problems include availability of the latest medicines, and treating every one at high risk.

At the conference, Piot presented the "UNAIDS Award for Outstanding Contributions to the AIDS Response" to Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, senior vice-president of Omnicom Group, Serge Dumont, and Li Xiguang, executive dean of Tsinghua University School of Journalism and Communication.

AIDS work in China has been strengthened significantly by the increasing involvement of many different non-health sectors. However, the community as a whole still needs to get more involved, Piot said yesterday.

A recent survey by UNAIDS found that 65 percent of the adult population were unwilling to live in the same household as a person with the HIV virus.

Nearly 50 percent believed HIV could be transmitted through a mosquito bite.

About 700,000 people have the HIV virus in China.

The survey found about 30 million people are prone to risky behavior - people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, sex workers, and clients of sex workers.