The vice governor of southwest China's Yunnan
Province, Wu Xiaoqing, said efforts are being strengthened to
control the spread of HIV, including new regulations on informing
the spouses of those who test positive, reported Xinhua News Agency
last Thursday.
The new regulations issued this month by the provincial health
department stipulate that spouses must be told if their partner has
a positive HIV test result. If the person tested does not do this
within a month after receiving the result, the lab will do it for
them.
Chen Juemin, health department director, said the measure is
expected to boost monitoring, behavior intervention and
treatment.
Wu said that the focus of this year's prevention and control
work will be to improve monitoring, with 15 city-level and 102
county-level HIV testing laboratories being built.
People with HIV/AIDS on low incomes will be offered free
treatment and support. Children who are HIV positive, or those from
families affected by HIV/AIDS, will also be able to access free
schooling, said Wu.
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The vice governor said that the province will continue its pilot
program providing methadone to drug users in order to reduce
infections through the sharing of injecting equipment, as well as
being determined to crack down on the illegal blood trading.
Programs providing free condoms in hotels and entertainment
venues and free needle exchanges were launched in the province last
year. They were welcomed my many as a pragmatic and potentially
effective way to help prevent transmission, though viewed as
controversial by some.
The province, neighboring the 'Golden Triangle' of drug
production between Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, recorded its first
HIV positive test result in 1989 and presently has over 17,000
people known to have HIV.
This makes Yunnan second only to Henan
Province, which has reported more than 20,000 cases, in the
whole of China.
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(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2005)