BEIJING-- China provided free anti-retroviral therapy to 37,497
AIDS patients between September 2003 and September 2007, the
Ministry of Health said here Tuesday.
Also, 771 HIV positive children received free treatment, the
ministry said on its official website.
In September 2003, the government announced that it would
provide free anti-retroviral treatment to AIDS patients in rural
areas and low-income city dwellers.
The government also promised free HIV consulting and screening,
free therapy to interrupt mother-to-infant transmission, free
infant HIV testing and financial assistance to orphans whose
parents died of AIDS.
"By September this year, the free therapy program had expanded
to 1,154 counties across China," the ministry said.
It added that free HIV consulting and screening services had
improved, with 4,293 disease control centers and public clinics
providing services.
"About 80 percent of China's disease control centers above the
county level are able to conduct HIV antibody testing," the
ministry said.
China had 183,733 officially registered HIV/AIDS cases in 2006,
but experts from the Ministry of Health and international
organizations estimated there were more likely 650,000 people
living with the disease in the country.
(Xinhua News Agency, November 28, 2007)