Needy HIV/AIDS patients in Guangdong Province will finally be given a minimum living allowance by the end of 2015, according to a plan released Sunday by the provincial government on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
The plan said local civil affairs officials and Red Cross agencies would make more efforts to help HIV/AIDS patients by providing support, as well as palliative care for those who become terminally ill.
Guangdong said residents who can meet some certain requirements will be eligible to receive financial support.
Children orphaned by HIV/AIDS will also become wards of the province's orphan support system. The government will also give children living with HIV/AIDS a basic living allowance and provide psychological counseling services.
The province said sexual transmission has become the major cause of the disease.
The Guangzhou-based New Express reported Sunday that 90.4 percent of new cases and new patients reported during the first nine months this year were sexually transmitted.
A rising number of patients and deaths have been reported, while a large number of people who are infected with the virus remain unwilling to report their disease or are unaware they have it.
The provincial health department reported 1,469 new HIV infection cases in 2011, up 17.32 percent annually, 622 deaths from AIDS were reported, an increase of 15.88 percent.
AIDS killed more people than any other infectious disease in Guangdong in 2011.
Rabies and tuberculosis were the second and third most deadly infectious disease that year.
Guangdong aims to basically curb the rising in HIV/AIDS infections by the end of 2015.
The plan said there is an obvious increase of cases among homosexual men and couples.
The province has also asked local health, education, human resources and social security departments to eliminate barriers against patients and their families and reduce their burden of medical treatment, citing widespread discrimination.
"It's right to devise a specific policy on handling these patients, but ultimately they should be treated the same as others," Meng Lin, coordinator of China Alliance of People Living with HIV/AIDS, told the Global Times.