零艾滋 (ling ai zi): Zero AIDS

World AIDS Day, observed on Dec 1, is a global public health campaign launched by the World Health Organization in 1987. This year's World AIDS Day theme in China was "getting to zero", that is, reducing the number of HIV/AIDS to zero.

The first HIV/AIDS case in China was detected in 1985. By the end of last year the number of such patients had risen to 810,000 and the virus had claimed 136,000 lives.

The government, public health departments and social organizations have responded well and in time to the threat of the virus in China. In contrast, people's fear, resistance and discrimination against the disease and those infected with it have increased with the rise in the number of cases.

Many HIV/AIDS carriers do not know about their infections, while some are reluctant to disclose the cause of their illness, which makes the efforts to prevent and control the spread of the virus even more difficult.

HIV has spread the fastest among homosexual groups in China. More than 30 percent of new infections are gay men. So, the government should allocate more funds to control and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, and take special measures to protect specially vulnerable groups such as gay men.