Chinese Government Launches First HIV/AIDS Training Center in Yunnan Province

The Chinese government has launched the first of six HIV/AIDS training centers aimed at educating medical staff on how to treat people with HIV/AIDS, according to the Chinese Ministry of Public Health, the Xinhua News Agency reports. The first center is located in the southwestern province of Yunnan, and the five others will be located in Beijing, Shanghai and the provinces of Liaoning, Hubei and Sichuan. The centers will provide professional training to five to six of the surrounding provinces and regions to accomplish more effective results in consultation, diagnosis, treatment and assistance in HIV/AIDS prevention and control. The primary focus of the new Yunnan province center -- which is based in the Yunnan Center for Disease Control and Prevention and will serve Guizhou, Hainan and Guangdong provinces and the region of Guanxi Zhuang -- is HIV prevention and early intervention through programs that address containment of HIV/AIDS among injection drug users and commercial sex workers by encouraging the use of sterilized needles and condoms. Yunnan CDC Director Lu Lin said, "Yunnan is one of the regions that suffer most from the disease, and the HIV/AIDS situation here is serious now." The Chinese government in 2004 earmarked about $3.6 million for the establishment of traditional Chinese medicine treatment centers for HIV/AIDS patients, according to the Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Xinhua News Agency, 8/11).

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