Hong Kong Experts Help Tackle Mainland China's Growing HIV/AIDS Problem

Hong Kong's HIV/AIDS groups are gearing up to help mainland China tackle its AIDS epidemic. Next April, Hong Kong's methadone treatment for HIV-positive intravenous drug users will be discussed at a UNAIDS training workshop for experts in the mainland, India and Southeast Asian countries. Hong Kong's IDUs are not thought to share needles, and the methadone maintenance program is believed to be an important factor in the low number of HIV-infected IDUs. Of its 1,863 HIV cases, 48 were IDUs, according to the latest figures until June this year. On the mainland, however, HIV was first introduced through IDUs and, according to a Nov. 26 UNAIDS report, nine provinces are experiencing localized epidemics among IDUs.

Homer Tso, chair of Hong Kong's government advisory Council on AIDS, said mainland authorities estimated there are about 900,000 drug users in Guangdong province, which abuts the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, but did not know how many of them were IDUs. Tso added that outbreaks among IDUs are "spiraling" and warned it was only a matter of time before HIV becomes a real problem in Hong Kong, especially if men travel to the mainland for sex.

Another problem is the thousands of AIDS orphans and HIV-infected children on the mainland. In 1994 and 1995, peasants regularly sold their blood for up to 50 yuan (US$6); unsanitary practices led many to be infected with HIV. The Hong Kong-based Chi Heng Foundation is focusing on these children by providing each orphan 200 yuan (US$24) a year to send them to school -- paying for their tuition, books and miscellaneous items. A CHF spokesperson estimated that because 1 million people in Henan Province are infected with HIV, there would be about 1.5 million orphans in the next few years.

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