Chinese Vice Premier Visits AIDS Village but Police Force Patients Home

Chinese Vice Premier and Health Minister Wu Yi visited an "AIDS village" Thursday to signal an accelerated government effort to control the potentially explosive epidemic. But police forced some 20 patients who had been vocal about requesting government assistance to stay home.

Wu visited Wenlou, one of hundreds of villages hit by HIV/AIDS in central Henan province, where poor farmers contracted HIV from selling their blood in unsanitary conditions. Farmers said the police arrived before Wu's visit.

"Four police officers grabbed me when I tried to leave my house," said Cheng Jiuhu, a 34-year-old HIV/AIDS patient whose wife also has the disease. "They held us for about three hours and did not let us go until after Wu Yi left." He claimed local officials paid some villagers to give Wu a good impression and that he wanted to tell the truth.

Wenlou, the first AIDS village reported on in the Chinese media, has received more coverage and government assistance than elsewhere, but conditions there remain difficult. International experts and Chinese health officials estimate about 20 percent of the people receiving government-supplied AIDS drugs since July have stopped taking them because of side effects and lack of doctors for follow-up care. The drugs -- older versions of HIV/AIDS drugs whose patents have expired -- are all China can afford.

Cheng said he also wanted to ask Wu to urge the government to provide financial assistance to HIV/AIDS patients who cannot work to support their families. "Local officials often lie that they are giving us a lot of help," he said.

Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to AIDS patients in Beijing on World AIDS Day was another indication that the Chinese government is determined to address HIV/AIDS, estimated to have infected at least 1 million and killed nearly 150,000.

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