CHINA> National
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CHINA> National
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Hu extends hand to AIDS patients
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-02 07:25 President Hu Jintao Monday visited a hospital treating AIDS patients, calling for more efforts to raise awareness on the prevention of the fatal disease and help those afflicted with it. It was the third time in five years that Hu inspected AIDS prevention work by meeting medical staff, researchers and patients, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
At the Beijing Ditan Hospital, Hu shook hands with two women infected with HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - and asked the patients about their health and concerns. One of the patients, a 28-year-old woman who wanted to be known as Xiao Zheng, told Hu she was found infected with HIV last December when she was pregnant. With the hospital's help, she received free medication to prevent the virus from being transmitted to her daughter. Her child, now six months old, is in sound health. The other HIV-positive woman, who wanted to be known as Xiao Xia, later told Xinhua that Hu's visit gave her "warmth and encouragement". The hospital acts as a social community providing HIV carriers with services including psychological treatment, AIDS counseling and legal assistance. In the infectious disease center of the hospital, which is also the country's clinical pharmacology base for HIV/AIDS and offers free AIDS management services, Hu examined the facilities and spoke with researchers about issues ranging from their work to the equipment they used. The president spoke highly of the center's achievements in the field of anti-viral vaccines and new medicines, stressing that "science and technology must used to conquer the disease", Xinhua reported. A joint investigation by a United Nations agency, health officials and the World Health Organization found that there were about 700,000 Chinese in the country living with HIV/AIDS at the end of last year, 85,000 of whom were suffering from full-blown AIDS. Beijing HIV infections down A total of 755 people in Beijing were diagnosed with HIV between January and October, latest figures from the municipal health bureau showed. The number represented a 22.4 percent drop in HIV patients in the capital year-on-year. Up till October, Beijing authorities registered 5,635 HIV/AIDS patients, of whom 219 were foreigners, 1,184 local residents and 4,232 people from other parts of the country, a report released by the municipal health bureau on Nov 26 showed. Sexual transmission had overtaken intravenous injections as the main channel of contracting the virus for the first time, the report stated, while cases of HIV infection have reportedly been rising among gay men. The capital has also set up nine methadone clinics to contain the spread of HIV and stem the use of intravenous drugs, the report said. Anyone aged 20 or older can visit the clinics for 10 yuan ($1.45) a day. More than 500 methadone clinics have been set up across the country, offering treatment for almost 440,000 HIV carriers and AIDS patients, the report said. |
