PRI’s ‘The World’ Examines Chinese Efforts to Fight HIV/AIDS

PRI's "The World" yesterday reported that "after years of inaction, there are signs that China's huge government bureaucracy is now mobilizing to fight" the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country. The segment examines an "aggressive" HIV/AIDS prevention program targeting women, migrants and sex workers in nine railway stations across China with pamphlets on sexual and blood collection HIV transmission risks. The railway project, which operates separately from the Chinese Ministry of Health, is "one of the few success stories" in China, where public health education is "scant," PRI reports. The segment also discusses efforts by the Ministry of Health to distribute HIV/AIDS treatments, money and food in Henan province, where unsafe blood collection practices in the mid-1990s helped spread HIV (Couzin, "The World," PRI, 10/18).