China Needs to Upgrade Health Care Infrastructure: Researcher

Health care is one of the biggest challenges facing China, Dr. David Ho, director and CEO of the New York-based Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC), said recently. "Health care must be fixed, or it will be a huge obstacle for China's development," said Ho, a native of Taiwan who travels to China every two months for research.

"We believe health care is a right. If a person is denied health care because of lack of money, I think there is something wrong and something unjust," Ho said.

ADARC was one of the first research centers dedicated solely to the study of HIV/AIDS. Ho and ADARC cemented their reputations as leaders in the field by using antiretroviral cocktails to reduce the mortality rate from HIV/AIDS. Ho's work won him recognition as Time Magazine's 1996 Person of the Year.

Though China has seen academic improvements during the last ten years, compared to the West it still continues to lag, said Ho. Particularly in rural areas, health care infrastructure remains weak and many rural doctors are poorly trained, he added.

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