UNAIDS Calls on Cities to Enhance Response to HIV; China Vows to Step Up Prevention

UNAIDS has "issued a call for cities to 'take the lead in making HIV history' by enhancing their response to the epidemic," UN News Centre reports. The article notes that in the next four decades, "seven out of 10 global citizens will be calling mega-cities -- with more than 10 million residents each -- home." UNAIDS Director Michel Sidibe discussed the issue of HIV in urban areas with "more than 100 health sector leaders and practitioners from across China at an event yesterday in Shanghai," and said that cities "have not been sufficiently mobilized and supported to act" (8/11).

In Beijing, Sidibe met with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who "pledged to step up efforts to fight AIDS," Xinhua reports. "China will combine the prevention and containment of HIV/AIDS with reform of the medical and healthcare system to improve the people's health by strengthening the public healthcare service," Xi said. The vice president also "vowed to support appeals from the United Nations and the international community, bolster south-south cooperation with Africa and push for the realization of Millennium Development Goals worldwide," according to the news service (8/12).

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