Persecuted AIDS activist publically honored
Beijing (AsiaNews)- For the first time, Dr. Gao Yaojie, China's leading AIDS activist, has been honored by her country and is among 10 recipients of the Touching China award, presented by the national China Central Television (CCTV). The 77 year-old retired gynecologist has spent years helping AIDS victims with her own money. Honored abroad for her dedication, she received the Jonathon Mann Award in 2001. At home, she has been continuously harassed by local authorities who threatened her, tapped her phone, and tried to prevent her from attending AIDS related conferences.
There are 840,000 cases of AIDS officially documented in China, with unofficial reports stating numbers much higher. Health agencies project the victims to reach 20 million by the year 2010 if serious measures aren't taken now. One of the hardest hit by HIV, the Henan province counts thousands of peasant farmers in a hundred villages who were infected by the virus after selling their plasma in a government fund-raising initiative and being re-infused with infected blood in the mid 1980's.
Honoring Dr. Gao may signify a change in the lethargy and deliberate secretiveness which the Chinese Government has been criticized for in its dealing with AIDS in the past. For the first time, China Central Television showed images of the AIDS-striken peasants in primitive village clinics. In December,Vice Premier and Health Minister, Wu Yi, met for a private 3-hour consultation with Dr. Gao who told Ms. Wu that priority must be given to finding adoptive families for the over 2000 children orphaned by the disease, and that the increasing problem of frauds selling fake medicine to AIDS patients must be eradicated.
On February 18th, 76 officials were sent by the Henan provincial government to 38 of the 100 AIDS inflicted villages, to help victims and their families. For a period of one year they will work to improve HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment services distributing free medicine, providing AIDS testing for villagers and free education and care to orphans and elderly who have lost family members to the disease, Xinhua reported.
As exposure of the AIDS crisis in China increases international pressure, Vice Premier Wu Yi vowed to punish anyone who tried to conceal the problem. The State Council is now considering to establish a high-level taskforce headed by Wu, to draft policies, mobilise public resources and monitor the spread of AIDS on the mainland, reported China Daily February 20th.
"I can only wait and see what the committee will do" Dr. Gao said. According to her, the government's response to AIDS has paled in comparison to its reaction against SARS. "SARS is like a mosquito bite. AIDS is like a poisenous snake bite. In many places in China, AIDS outbreaks still haven't been exposed."
HIV-AIDS issues are the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, one of the least powerful and worst funded ministries on the mainland.
Henan is one of the most secretive provinces in China and has previously arrested journalists and activists who have exposed the AIDS problem both internationally and at home.
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19/02/2007
