Heightened Awareness
Boo, a hundred words of my article got cut for space, so I’m putting the whole thing here. EX-EX-EX-CLUUUSIIIIIVE
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Heightened Awareness
CW looks at the latest figures on the spread of HIV/AIDS in the People’s Republic.
On November 30, the day before World AIDS Day was observed around the globe, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention released their official figures for 2011: forty-eight thousand new cases of HIV were registered in China this year, bringing the total to around 780, 000. Experts recoiled; while the PRC is not yet near what many would consider a widespread AIDS epidemic, the statistics show a tremendous increase in the rate of the disease’s spread, which since 2006 has been closer to thirty thousand per year.
The latest numbers have non-governmental organizations like DKT International calling for better coordination between NGOs and the Chinese government. “Too much policy is carried out through government sectors, which I think is inefficient,” says Jimmy Cai, the director of DKT’s Chinese branch. “They need to work more closely with NGOs to reach a wider range of people. We work much more closely with the (HIV/AIDS) community than officials, so we need to be brought into the fold.”
Ah Qiang, executive director of P-FLAG China (Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians And Gays), agrees that there is a need for more political involvement with grassroots organizations. With twenty-nine percent of the new infections arising as a result of “homosexual acts,” the issue is a hot button among LGBTs.
“We’re part of the LGBT community, so why doesn’t the government ask us what we want?” Qiang asks. “They need to do more outreach and networking with us. We work with and for LGBTs, but we can’t make new regulations; politicians can.”
None of this is to say that authorities hasvebeen turning a blind eye to the issue. On the contrary: the CCP’s “Four Free and One Care” strategy, instituted in 2003, is one of many progressive steps made toward improving the situation of HIV/AIDS patients. The policy provides free antiretroviral drugs to the uninsured, free counseling and testing, free medicine for HIV-infected pregnant women, free schooling for AIDS orphans, and care and economic assistance to the households of people living with the disease.
But while China’s HIV/AIDS policies are years ahead of other developing countries, more can always be done. “Much of China is still very sexually conservative, but the CCP needs to use their media skills to improve awareness,” Jimmy Cai adds. “We need more condom advertisements on TV and more public dialogue with AIDS patients. It’s only by understanding HIV that we can really prevent it.”
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A well written piece. I guess the people are more open to criticize the government on policy than I expected. I suppose based on population size the issue doesn’t get a lot of coverage.