China orders medical security campaign following malpractice-caused HIV infections

Source: Ecns.cn

China's health authority has ordered a nationwide medical security campaign following five incidents of HIV transmission due to staff negligence at a hospital in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

 

Agencies and individuals involved in the incident will be held accountable, the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) said in statement Monday.

 

At least five people have been infected with HIV after a technician at the Zhejiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital reused pipettes on separate patients, according to a statement released by Zhejiang provincial health and family planning commission.

 

The incident was reported to the provincial commission on Jan. 26.

 

The NHFPC and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine will despatch a team to Zhejiang to oversee the investigation into the incident. More

 

 

 

 

13/02/2017      

Surgeon performs China's first heart operation on AIDS patient

Source: asiaone

An AIDS patient suffering from a serious heart condition has undergone a successful surgery in Shanghai - the first of its kind in the country - and is about to be released from the hospital next week.

 

According to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, the HIV-positive patient, identified as Mr Zhou, had been in critical condition due to a problem with a heart valve, and underwent the surgery at the centre last month.

 

"It was China's first successful heart surgery on an HIV-positive patient," said Lu Hongzhou, the centre's Party chief and an expert of HIV/AIDS.

 

The news has somewhat encouraged the HIV/AIDS community in China, where HIV-positive patients are always rejected for a surgery because of medical workers' worries of exposure to the virus.

 

On Jan 6, professor Sun Xiaoning from Zhongshan Hospital under Fudan University in Shanghai performed the surgery at the centre's invitation.

 

"There is an occupational risk when operating on HIV-positive patients," Sun said. "But our team was not afraid because of the full awareness of the disease, and it's a medical worker's obligation to give patients a new life." More

 

 

 

 

09/02/2017      

Chinese hospital infects five with HIV by reusing equipment

Source: BBC NEWS

A Chinese hospital has admitted accidentally infecting five people with HIV because a staff member reused medical equipment that should have been discarded.

 

Officials said that a technician reused a tube used to treat an individual with HIV on other patients.

 

Provincial authorities described it as a "severe violation of procedure".

 

Five people had been sacked at Hangzhou's Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, they said.

 

Provincial health officials said they were informed of the situation on 26 January.

 

But in a statement (in Chinese) they gave no information on how many other patients might have been exposed, what they were being treated for or when the infections occurred.

 

Those affected would receive treatment and compensation, the brief statement said. More

 

 

05/02/2017      

China issues five-year plan on HIV/AIDS prevention

Source: English.CCTV

The Chinese government has issued a five-year action plan for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

 

The government will make the utmost effort to find out HIV-infected and AIDS patients, reduce infections through drug needles, blood transfusion and mother-to-child transmission, minimize the fatality rate and improve patients' quality of life, according to the plan posted on the website of the State Council on Sunday.

 

The plan, to be implemented between 2016 and 2020, has set multiple targets such as reducing AIDS-related activities of male homosexuals by at least 10 percent and decrease mother-to-child transmission rate to less than 4 percent.

 

More than 90 percent of the infected people and patients should receive anti-virus treatment and more than 90 percent of the cases of such treatment should be successful, according to the plan.

 

The plan also promotes the use of traditional Chinese medicine in AIDS treatment.

 

International cooperation on research will be strengthened to enhance the prevention and treatment, according to the plan.