After several years of intensive efforts, the Chinese government has made great achievements in the fight against HIV, said Ma Xiaowei, vice minister of health, in Bejing Monday on the 16th World AIDS Day.

According to reports released by the Ministry of Health, in China HIV is an epidemic covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. There are 840,000 HIV-carriers, among whom 80,000 suffer AIDS.

The reports also say HIV spreads not only among high risk groups like drug abusers and prostitutes but the common public as well. The increase of high risk group members, infrequent use of condoms and insufficient AIDS-related education all give rise to the speedy spread of HIV in China.

In face of the severe situation, Ma said the State Council had made long-term plans on AIDS prevention and control, including more investment in HIV medicine research, and popularizing and reducing the cost of AIDS treatment.

He said in 2002, the State Council had made policies to exempt imported anti-HIV medicine from taxes, which well reduced their prices by one half to two-thirds in China's market, and thus an AIDS sufferer would merely spend 3,500 to 4,000 yuan (US$423 to US$483) on AIDS treatment each year.

According to a China AIDS prevention and control report by the Ministry of Health, the Chinese government had done AIDS prevention supervision and inspection of the high risk group, the vulnerable group and the normal group since 1999 in 22 provinces.

In 2002, the Ministry of Health made relevant laws and rules to guide China's AIDS prevention and control work.

However, the report pointed out that China's current HIV supervision and inspection system still needed to be improved.

One of the key steps to prevent and control the AIDS epidemic was to strengthen education and publicity work so as to change the society's attitude toward AIDS sufferers, said Ma.

He Zuoxiu, a famous Chinese scholar, said people's negative attitude brought such huge psychological pressures to HIV sufferers that they were afraid to let others know of their infection, and sometimes even refused to receive any medical examination or treatment.

He hoped that society as a whole would take a tolerant attitude toward HIV carriers. He also hoped that Chinese academia, especially humanists and moralists, would make every effort to change society's views on sex, so that HIV carriers would stride out of psychological shadows and help halt the progress of the epidemic.

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