AIDS Crisis in Beijing

[Shapecity]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p>

BEIJING (Reuters) - <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196444091_0" class="yshortcuts">Chinese President Hu Jintao</span> visited a number of AIDS patients and their families on Friday, a public show of solidarity in a country where <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196444091_1" class="yshortcuts">HIV/AIDS</span> sufferers still face widespread stigmatization. <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" id="lw_1196444091_2" class="yshortcuts">Beijing</span> was initially slow to acknowledge the threat of the disease, but has since stepped up the fight against it, spending more on prevention programs and implementing policies to curb discrimination.</p>

State television showed Hu speaking with a female AIDS patient at a Beijing hospital, the shot zooming in on his hand shaking hers.</p>

"I'm so glad you are not frightened by the disease," Hu said.</p>

He was shown at length speaking to the family of an <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196444091_3" class="yshortcuts">AIDS</span> sufferer as well as to the hospital's staff, whom he encouraged to act responsibly and with a "humanitarian" attitude.</p>

Hu's visit, on the eve of <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" id="lw_1196444091_4" class="yshortcuts">World AIDS Day</span>, highlights both the progress China has made in confronting the disease and the challenges that remain.</p>

The rate of new <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" id="lw_1196444091_5" class="yshortcuts">HIV/AIDS infections</span> is slowing, to about 50,000 new infections this year compared with 70,000 in 2005, the government said this week. That means there will be about 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196444091_6" class="yshortcuts">China</span> this year.</p>

But the epidemic is spreading from high-risk groups like sex workers and <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196444091_7" class="yshortcuts">intravenous drug users</span> to the general population, and persistent discrimination means many sufferers are afraid to seek medical treatment, experts say.</div></p>

Source: Yahoo News</p>

 

[pegs]

Wow. This is sad and disappointing. Something even worse is that if/when a cure is found, instead of trying to save lives, people are just gonna try to make as much money as possible with the cure.</p>