With World AIDS Day coming up on December 1, the Chinese capital
of Beijing revved up its AIDS awareness campaign on Sunday by
organizing a range of activities.
The activities included a five-kilometer run along
Chang'an?Boulevard from the Xidan Cultural Plaza to the
Millennium Altar.
Henke Bekedam, the World Health Organization representative in
Beijing, and Jin Dapeng, director of the Beijing Municipal Health
Bureau, were present at the Xidan Cultural Plaza, the starting line
of the race and the central point of Sunday's activities.
Other events during the day included a mass consulting service
with the participation of a dozen medical organizations, including
the Beijing Center for Disease Control and You'an Hospital, and the
release of Chinese-language brochures titled Act Now, which contain
speeches of leaders from the Asia-Pacific region on combating
AIDS.
Beijing launched a three-step campaign to curb the spread of
AIDS earlier this year. Programs include making condoms available
in public places, methadone maintenance therapy, and establishment
of a trial government-funded needle-exchange program.
The municipal government has also promised to provide
financially strapped AIDS patients with free medication, and their
children will be exempted from paying tuition fees.
"Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS" is the theme of the 2004 World AIDS
Day. The campaign explores how gender inequality fuels the AIDS
epidemic.
Started in 1988, World AIDS Day celebrates progress made in the
battle against the epidemic and brings into focus remaining
challenges such as raising awareness, improving education and
fighting prejudice.
According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS' (UNAIDS) AIDS
Epidemic Update 2004, in some parts of China, such as Henan,
Anhui,
and Shandong,
HIV was already spreading a decade ago among farmers who sold blood
to unauthorized collection agencies.
Now HIV has spread to all 31 of the country's provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities, with much of the current
spread attributable to injecting drug use and compensated sex. HIV
prevalence among drug injectors was measured at between 18 and 56
percent?in six cities in south China's?Guangdong
and Guangxi
in 2002, while in Yunnan
Province some 21 percent?of injectors tested positive in
2003, according to the UNAIDS report.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn November 29, 2004)