State Council Research Office: "Present Situation of Preventing and Curing AIDS in China and Countermeasures"

Liaowang (Beijing) No. 38, (19 September 1994), pp. 9-11.

Excerpts from report by special correspondent:
 

From June 1985, when the first AIDS case was detected among visiting foreign tourists, up to May of this year, China reported 1,361 HIV carriers (of whom 255 were foreigners or foreign citizens of Chinese origin and 1,106 were Chinese), and 40 AIDS patients (22 of whom had already died). These carriers and patients were scattered in 22 provinces and cities, including Yunnan, Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian and Zhejiang, with more than 85 per cent of the HIV carriers in Yunnan Province. Prior to 1989, victims infected with the HIV virus had been mainly people from abroad, but thereafter the incidence of mainland HIV carriers rose at a rapid pace. The spread of this disease in China has the following features.

- The problem is most serious in big cities, and in coastal or border provinces and regions. In big cities, most of the HIV carriers are infected through immoral sexual contact; in coastal regions, people who have been abroad to visit their relatives constitute the majority of the carriers; in inland provinces, the victims are mostly people who have worked abroad as labourers; and in the southwest border regions, intravenous drug-takers account for the greater part of the infected.

- The HIV carriers are mainly people in their prime of life, over 80 per cent of whom are aged 20-49, precisely the best years for work.

- The spread is so wide that AIDS affects people from almost every walk of life, including workers, peasants, businessmen, students, soldiers and cadres. Peasants make up more than 70 per cent of the afflicted, while among those who have been abroad, the HIV carriers have turned out to be mostly those who went abroad for family visits, or as labourers and sailors.

- Immoral sexual contact gradually has become a major factor contributing to the spread of AIDS. It is true that according to AIDS reports, HIV carriers have been found to be mostly intravenous drug-takers in the southwest border regions, but this incidence is now increasing at a slow pace. On the contrary, the number of HIV carriers infected through sexual contact has been rising at a rapid pace with each passing year; statistics show 5.6 per cent, 13.8 per cent and 15.7 per cent in 1991, 1992 and 1993 respectively. In provinces and cities other than Yunnan, most of the suffers are individuals infected via sexual contact.

- It is noted that the number of HIV carriers found among people entering or leaving China has been increasing sharply in recent years . According to a report issued by the General Office of Health Quarantine of the Ministry of Public Health, 150 cases were detected from among such persons during the seven years from 1985 to 1991. The year 1992 alone, however, witnessed 115 cases, and the following year saw 71 cases, with their aggregate exceeding the total of the previous seven years.

At present, there are not many HIV carriers or AIDS patients in China, and therefore the entire development of China's national economy has not been affected. In a few factories and villages, however, AIDS has presented a problem. For example, in a village of a certain county in Yunnan Province, where HIV infection is relatively serious, farming has been hampered because healthy villagers have been leaving the village for fear of being infected by the HIV virus. Should AIDS spread in big way in China, the tourist, entertainment and service industries will bear the brunt of the lash, and both industrial and agricultural production will be hit...

Statistics show that the average annual medical treatment expense for one AIDS patient in China is 3,300 to 74,00 yuan, the equivalent of half of a family's yearly income, on average, or even 1.1 times that sum. The total expenses for medical treatment are 18.3 to 24.4 times the per-capita income. Such heavy expenses go beyond the means of either an individual or a family. What is more, most Chinese people in their more robust years have to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of their children and supporting their parents. Should their lives be taken by AIDS, the lives of their families and the normal growth of their children would be severely affected, and the community would have to bear the burden of looking after the orphans and the old people whose livelihood could not be otherwise assured.

Psychologically, the incurability of AIDS and the terrible consequence of its spread can intensify people's fear. AIDS patients and their family members usually are treated unfairly. They may lose their jobs, they find themselves isolated, and their children may be compelled to leave school. All these problems are likely to induce their grievances against society or even thoughts of revenge, thus giving rise to contingent crimes and reducing them to factors of instability in society...

The work of preventing and controlling AIDS in China aims to bring into full play the role of every department so as to establish as soon as possible an overall system for AIDS prevention and control with the participation of all social forces under the leadership of the governments at all levels. It is expected that during the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" , a state macrocontrol body should be set up to curb the spread of AIDS, that further necessary laws and regulations should be promulgated to enhance administration, and that a network should be formed to combine publicity and education, health guarantees, monitoring administration and follow-up services. Efforts ought to be made to popularize knowledge of AIDS among both city dwellers and country folk so as to further raise their self-protection ability so that the rate of HIV infection may be checked at a low level, and so that China's modernization and opening up to the outside world will not be interfered with or struck by the spread of AIDS.

To achieve these objectives, experience and lessons from abroad should be used for reference. Proceeding from China's actual conditions, the guideline for the work to prevente and cure AIDS should be: Put prevention first. As AIDS is a pernicious epidemic defying medical treatment, and will remain so for a considerably long time to come, prevention must be put first so as to curb AIDS. Put publicity and education first. It should be noted that immoral sexual contact and intravenous drug-taking are the main channels through which AIDS spreads. Prolonged and purposeful publicity and education must be conducted among highly vulnerable people to correct this bad behaviour. Put regular work first. Efforts must be made to stop the rapid spread of AIDS at an early stage and to gradually eliminate the disease, but such efforts must be regular, for any relaxation will mean the more rapid spread of AIDS. Therefore, the tireless prevention and cure work is very necessary...

More funds must be put in. Financial support to strengthen the work of preventing and curbing AIDS should be given both by the central and local governments, especially the governments in the provinces where more people suffer the affliction. The central government may consider some financial appropriation to assist the Chinese Association of VD and AIDS Prevention in carrying on relevant activities. Where the HIV infection is more serious, increased funds should be invested in the monitoring of AIDS, the building of an anti-epidemic and health control team, the establishment of laboratories for HIV identification and the improvement of the monitoring network. Meanwhile, funds should be raised through various channels. As the control and prevention of AIDS is an undertaking beneficial to the public, domestic and overseas enterprises, organizations and individuals should be welcome to contribute to the cause voluntarily, but no compulsory apportionment or law violations are allowed for the fund-raising. In addition, a foundation may be set up exclusively for the purpose of AIDS prevention and research...

(Excerpts provided by BBC.)