China to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of AIDS

Source: INQUIREE

GENEVA, Switzerland—UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe on Friday said China’s performance in the field of AIDS prevention and treatment had been one of the best in the world, adding that China was expected to become the next country to completely wipe out mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of the disease.

China’s crucial role in prevention and treatment innovations was particularly lauded by the UNAIDS head who believed that China would become the organization’s most important partner in the next 15 years, contributing even more to the global goal of ending the AIDS pandemic.

He also said China was currently running the world’s largest methadone addicts intervention among drug users.

In the past few years, HIV prevalence in intravenous drug users in China has dropped by 90 percent. More

20/3/2016

Xinhua, UNAIDS ink new agreement on global anti-AIDS cooperation

Source:Xinhua

GENEVA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Xinhua News Agency President Cai Mingzhao (L) and UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe attend the signing ceremony of the UNAIDS and Xinhua strategic cooperation memorandum, in Geneva, Switzerland, March 18, 2016. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe on Friday said China's performance in the field of AIDS prevention and treatment had been one of the best in the world, adding that China was expected to become the next country to completely wipe out mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of the disease. Sidibe on Friday signed here with Xinhua News Agency President Cai Mingzhao a new strategic cooperation memorandum, the two sides pledging to strengthen cooperation in areas such as social media so as to jointly contribute to the fight against AIDS. More

15/3/2016

HIV-Positive Tibetans Going Up Yearly Despite Education Campaign
Source: YIBADA

The language barrier, specifically inability to speak Putonghua, is the reason why Tibet is vulnerable to the spread of HIV and AIDS despite efforts by NGOs to educate residents.

While the number of HIV-positive Tibetans are going up yearly, many residents of major Tibetan regions in Gansu, Qinghai, Suchuan and Yunnan Provinces and the Tibet Autonomous Region do now know what AIDS is or realize it is fatal, said Chupal Sangpo, deputy director of an NGO in Sichuan dedicated in educating Tibetans about HIV.

However, the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission said that as of end of 2015, new HIV cases in Tibet went down for the fifth straight year, while 77,000 people diagnosed as HIV-positive received treatment in the past 12 months.

But the proportion of cases caused by sexual transmission went up in recent years. For instance, 87 percent of HIV-positive people got the virus through sex, of which 12.5 percent were males who had sex with men, reported Global Times.

Most of the information materials are written in Chinese instead of Tibetan language. The communication problem, coupled with some centres leaking the personal information of some AIDS patients have caused misunderstanding amid rumors about the ailment, said Sangpo. One rumor is that people with HIV/AIDS would be thrown inside iron cages and immolated.

However, in February, Teach AIDS and the Central Tibetan Administration produce a culturally and linguistically appropriate HIV education materials for Tibetans. It was released to time with Losar, the Tibetan New Year, reported the Central Tibetan Administration. More

16/3/2016

People with HIV in Asia thrown out of hospitals, women sterilised, according to study

Source: South China Morning Post

Some health workers in Asia are refusing to perform surgery and provide services for people living with HIV, and are even expelling patients from hospitals and forcing women to undergo sterilisation, according to grassroots organisations.

In China and Vietnam, discrimination took the form of changing the recommended option for treatment from surgery to topical or oral medication, said the four-country study supported by Asia Catalyst, which provides management training for community-based health organisations.

In Myanmar and Cambodia, patients with HIV were relegated to segregated waiting areas and bed spaces. One HIV-positive woman in Myanmar said doctors told staff not to give her a hospital bed, so she slept for two nights in the barracks for security guards.

“You see the fear and misinformation that’s in the medical setting,” said Gareth Durrant, Asia Catalyst’s Bangkok-based director of capacity building and community initiatives.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to 4.8 million people living with HIV, the majority of them living in 12 countries: China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.More

20/3/2016

Victoria Beckham to Be Honored for Helping Fight against AIDS

Source: WomenofChina

Victoria Beckham arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday to be honored by the American foundation for AIDS research, or amfAR, an anti-AIDS nonprofit organization, for her contribution to the fight against the disease.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" star Michelle Yeoh, the evening's co-chair, said Beckham deserves the honor.

"She's always been very very supportive, and she raises awareness for cinema against AIDS, she's always participating and very supportive of all the things that we do, and that's very important for us."

Co-founded by the late and legendary Dame Elizabeth Taylor in 1985, amfAR is dedicated to fighting against AIDS globally.

Combining star power from Asia and Hollywood, amfAR was able to raise over 4 million US dollars at last year's inaugural fundraising gala in Hong Kong.

This year, it is hoping to do more. More

18/3/2016

Du Cong: Former Wall Street banker gives heart to AIDS orphans

Source: Ecns

 To many journalists who have talked with Du Cong (Chung To in Cantonese), he's come across as a talkative, easygoing and friendly speaker always eager to share.

His Chi Heng Foundation, literally meaning "wisdom in action", has been much covered by media at home and abroad. His name also accompanies a string of titles – Columbia and Harvard alumni, former banker on Wall Street, former Associate Director of UBS and founder and chairman of the charity foundation.

In his 40s, Du spent the past 18 years helping orphans whose parents died of AIDS as well as other HIV/AIDS-impacted families in central China. Many of the patients were infected amid a well-intended campaign to encourage blood donation in the early 1990s that went wrong. What Du saw during a visit to some villages in 2002 shocked him and finally led to his decision to quit his job as a banker. From then on, the foundation also shifted from promoting awareness of HIV/AIDS to directly helping children impacted by the disease.

Du believes education is key to the future of these children. Thus, instead of setting up orphanages, Chi Heng chose to directly fund their tuition, so that they could still stay in the community while gaining knowledge and skills. Chi Heng even thought about their future jobs. A bakery and an eco bag factory were set up by the foundation as two social enterprises to get the HIV/AIDS-impacted people employed.