Protesters urge AIDS action

• Source: Global Times
• [02:19 November 26 2009]
• Comments

She and her husband used to earned 3,000 yuan a month. But now she is jobless. No one is willing to offer her a job because of her AIDS, she said.

Gao said she receives a monthly subsidy of 50 yuan from the local government, but it's not enough, and she desperately needs to find work.

"I feel so bad that healthy people are all working to support their family, but I cannot," she said.

Murong feng, head of Light of Love – Caring for People Living with HIV/AIDS, a non-governmental organization in Hebei Province, also said AIDS patients in the country need more care.

"AIDS patients can get medicine from the local disease prevention and control center for free," he said. "But some local centers still find hidden ways to charge them."

For example, he said, a center may charge 800 yuan for an AIDS diagnosis report or only offer certain cheap medicines for free.

Another AIDS patient, Wang Tingju, said at the protest that the victims would comfort and support each other. "Then we decided to unite and take action," she said.

She and her husband also sold blood in the 1990s. She learned she had AIDS in 2003.

Lu Hongzhou, a member of the Ministry of Health's AIDS Advisory Committee, assured that China is deeply committed to the AIDS situation, offering comprehensive precaution and treatment plans.

"Whenever HIV carriers are found, they can immediately receive care from the nationwide AIDS-treatment network," he said. "More effort is put into dealing with AIDS than any other infectious disease."

Sun Ye, Kang Juan and Song Shengxia contributed to this story