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While the prevalence of AIDS in China remains low compared with the total population, the situation is very serious in several provinces affected by drug trafficking and illegal blood donation, senior Chinese AIDS control officials said on Saturday.

China had registered a total of 214,000 HIV cases by July 30 this year, said Hao Yang, deputy director of the AIDS prevention and control office of the State Council during an online interview at Xinhuanet.com.

"But still many HIV-positive people are not registered as having the disease," Hao said, "we rely on sample surveys to assess the general prevalence."

According to the last major survey in 2005 by the Ministry of Health, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people suffering from HIV in China was estimated to be 650,000.

The survey is normally carried out every two years but this year's figure has yet to be released.

"On one hand the prevalence is still low compared with the total population of 1.3 billion, but on the other hand it is a large number," Hao said.

The situation in China is better than many African countries and some Asian neighbors, but in several provinces which are troubled by drug trafficking and illegal blood donation, the prevalence is high and the situation is very serious, he said.

When AIDS prevalence in common Chinese, for instance pregnant women, remains less than one percent, it can be regarded as low, said Wu Zhunyou, director of China's National Center for AIDS Prevention and Control (NCAIDS), in the same interview.

The people who have HIV in China are mainly from high-risk groups like drug users, sex workers, homosexuals and those having more than one sex partner, he said.

"But China must learn the lessons from countries like South Africa. We are trying to do things in advance," he said.

A number of government policies have been issued including free HIV tests to everyone and free treatment for AIDS patients in rural areas and low-income earners in cities without basic health insurance as well as free treatment and delivery service to HIV-positive expectant mothers.

Since 2005, disease control departments in China's counties, the lowest level, now report HIV-positive cases to the central government in Beijing directly through a computer network. They used to send the information by post.

"We can't fully control the spread of AIDS in a short time. That's why more preventive efforts must be made," Wu said.

The government has also launched campaigns to increase public awareness about the diseases, for instance, education on safe sex among youth and setting up condom vending machines.

In the past two years in major cities, hotel rooms have been required to provide condoms.

China still is treating AIDS cases poorly

MIANCHI, China - Twice a week, just after school lets out in this small county in Henan province, a 13-year-old girl with a short bob and wide smile holds her parents' hands and walks two blocks down the street into the harsh fluorescent light of an emergency medical station.

There, she pulls back the waistband of her pants while a nurse dabs disinfectant, prepares a syringe and gives the girl's right buttock a quick jab.

"It doesn't hurt," the girl said after a recent visit. "I'm used to it."

The girl, whose parents asked that her name not be used, has HIV, which they say she contracted through an unnecessary blood transfusion in 1995. Despite early symptoms suggesting she had the virus, doctors at the hospital that treated her said her problems were minor and unrelated to the transfusion. They gave her anti-inflammatory drugs and blister cream.

Not until March, when the family turned to another hospital in neighboring Shaanxi province, did doctors test the girl and determine she had HIV.

"At the time, I almost collapsed. I just didn't want to live," said the girl's mother, who asked to be identified only by her surname, Li.

The girl's case is hardly unique in China, where despite official pledges at the national level to care for people with the virus that causes AIDS, local hospital and government officials frequently express reluctance to do so.

Some fear having to compensate people who contracted the virus through blood transfusions, a common method of HIV transmission in China. Others fear that the publicity of AIDS cases will hamper local investment.

Communist Party leaders long treated AIDS as taboo. In recent years, however, China has won praise from the West for campaigns to raise awareness. In 2003, the government promised free HIV testing and counseling for all who wanted it, and free antiretroviral treatment for the poor. That year, Premier Wen Jiabao made headlines after being shown on state TV shaking hands with AIDS patients.

And yet hospitals like the one here in Mianchi County not only fail to offer to test for HIV, they deliberately misdiagnose and cover up the problem, according to experts.

There were 18,543 new cases of HIV reported in the first six months of this year, nearly as many as for all of last year, according to the official Xinhua news agency. China's estimate of 650,000 AIDS cases, among a population of 1.3 billion people, is extremely low, domestic and international AIDS groups say.

Berlin meeting raises 9.7 bln dollars for AIDS, TB, malaria

by Audrey KauffmannThu Sep 27, 2:16 PM ET

Donors pledged here 9.7 billion dollars to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria over the next three years in "a great day" for the battle against the three pandemics, former UN chief Kofi Annan said.

The yield of the three-day donor conference in Berlin exceeded expectations as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria had hoped to secure about eight billion dollars.

"This is a great day for global health. I am grateful to all the governments who are here today and those who will pledge in future," Annan told reporters.

The event saw France pledge 900 million euros (1.2 billion dollars), Germany 600 million euros and Spain 424 million euros, nearly tripling Madrid's current contribution levels to the fight the diseases that claim six million lives a year.

"The response is a recognition of the good work of the fund," German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said.

The Global Fund says it needs 12 to 18 billion dollars between 2008 and 2010 to maintain its current treatment programmes and initiate new ones over the coming three years.

It will reach the lower end of that target if the United States contributes an expected pledge of 2.172 billion dollars. Canada, Japan and private donors have promised to top up the fund further for its upcoming three-year cycle.

Yet Annan had earlier urged donors to do even better.

He said they should quadruple their backing to ensure that the fund's programmes can keep pace with the alarming rate at which AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria spread.

Calling the fund, which was set up at his behest in 2002, "entirely successful," he said it ideally needed some eight billion dollars a year.

"We must absolutely increase our efforts. The aim is possibly as much as eight billion dollars a year."

His call echoed a dire warning by UNAIDS on the eve of the donor meeting that global funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment must increase more than fourfold over the next three years to 42.2 billion dollars.

The UN agency said if money came in at the current pace, funding from public and private sources would reach about 15.4 billion dollars in 2010 and fall further behind the growth of the disease.

"A failure to move beyond the limited successes achieved to date will only cause the epidemic to worsen," it warned.

The Global Fund relies on donations from states, foundations and big business, and says it so far saved two million lives through grants for 450 programmes in 136 different countries.

The meeting of 30 key donors in Berlin saw tough pressure from anti-poverty campaigners on the Group of Eight wealthy nations to loosen their purse strings and take a leading role in replenishing the fund's coffers.

They demanded that the G8 improve on a pledge made in June to give 60 billion dollars over the next few years to fight AIDS and the two other diseases, of which half had already been pledged by the United States.

Irish rock star Bono's Africa advocacy group DATA termed this "disappointing" and asked they step up their donations "aggressively."

Protestors picketed the Berlin meeting and said the wealthy club of nations is not known for holding its promises, chanting: "The G8 lies and people die."

Germany, which holds the presidency of the G8 this year, on Wednesday undertook to write off 50 million euros of Indonesia's bilateral debt on condition that Jakarta plough half that sum into programmes run by the Global Fund.

The executive director of the Global Fund, Michel Kazatchkine, said talks were now underway to write off debt owed by Kenya, Peru and Pakistan in a bid to help them too to fight disease.

The Global Fund claims to have saved two million lives by giving medicine to AIDS and tuberculosis sufferers and distributing mosquito nets in malaria-infested areas.

UNICEF calls for AIDS prevention for youth

Tue Sep 25, 1:16 PM ET

The United Nations Children's Fund on Tuesday called for more AIDS prevention and medication programmes aimed at young people ahead of a major meeting in Berlin to raise funds to fight the disease.

"With a view to the donor conference of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, UNICEF demands that greater efforts be made at last to improve the medical care of 2.3 million children worldwide infected with HIV," the UN body said in a statement.

It said that only 15 percent of the children who need anti-retroviral drugs are receiving them, and that 330,000 children are dying every year of AIDS.

"Children are still being disadvantaged in the fight against AIDS. Hundreds of thousands of girls and boys are dying because of a lack of medicine and shortage of healthcare providers," said UNICEF's chairwoman for Germany, Heide Simonis.

The body said this was the case despite AIDS drugs being cheaper than ever and despite the development of an anti-retroviral treatment especially for children which is easier to administer and does not need cold storage.

The drug represented a breakthrough in the fight against AIDS in developing nations, it said.

The Global Fund is bringing together officials from the United Nations, G8 nations and non-governmental organisations from Wednesday to Thursday to collect pledges to fund its programmes between 2008 and 2010.

The fund estimates that it needs between 12 and 18 billion dollars (8.5 and 12.7 billion euros) to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis over this three-year period.

Together, it says, the three diseases kill more than six million people a year.

UNICEF urged donor nations to "keep their promises so that the latest developments in AIDS research can also benefit children in the developing world."

The Global Fund was set up in 2002 at the instigation of then-UN secretary general Kofi Annan. It has so far spent some seven billion dollars in grants for 450 programmes in 136 different countries.

Studies on the continent have found circumcision reduces the risk of HIV transmission from females to males by 60 percent.

However, U.N. research carried out last year said only about one in every five Rwandan men had undergone the procedure.

"We want to embark on a sensitisation campaign to have males in our country circumcised as one way of combating HIV/AIDS," Anita Asiimwe, managing director at the Health Ministry's Treatment and Research AIDS Centre, told Reuters.

"But we don't want to confuse our people to replace circumcision for other preventive measures like the use of a condom and abstinence. It is just coming as an addition."

Asiimwe said the government would soon begin training health workers for the task, before launching a countrywide programme to encourage voluntarily male circumcision which she said could also help prevent other sexually transmitted diseases.

"We want to channel it right from the major hospitals down to the health centres so that access for every willing male is provided," Asiimwe said.

The U.N. agency UNAIDS says male circumcision has the potential to prevent about 5.7 million new HIV infections and 3 million deaths over 20 years in the region.

In Rwanda, the disease was often spread on during its 1994 genocide, when militiamen raped women and girls.

However, a recent survey showed a 3 percent HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country, relatively low compared with neighbouring states.

Taylor sparkles at AIDS fundraiser

By MICHAEL CIDONI, Associated Press WriterFri Sep 28, 3:28 PM ET

Elizabeth Taylor, wearing a coffee-colored, gold-sequined Naeem Khan gown accented with diamond jewelry, put some superstar sparkle into an HIV/AIDS fundraiser.

Taylor, 75 and in a wheelchair, is a founding chairwoman of the annual Macy's Passport event, a charity auction and showcase for food and fashion.

Since 1988, Passport has raised $25 million for HIV/AIDS services, prevention and research. The actress was honored Thursday night with its first Humanitarian Award for AIDS Activism.

"I have done this every year for years," Taylor told The Associated Press in an interview. "It's tradition and it's part of my existence."

As her longtime friend Rock Hudson battled AIDS, which killed him in 1985, Taylor began work to raise funds and increase awareness of the disease.

"I used to have doors slammed in my face, telephones hung up on me," she said when asked about the differences between her early fundraising efforts and today. "This (is) 100 percent turnaround."

Taylor, who has been married eight times (twice to Richard Burton), appeared amused when asked if she'd ever marry again.

"Noooooooo!" she shouted, and then laughed. "Now I'm gonna howl."

Then she actually howled.

So, how's she doing?

"Physically?" asked Taylor. "I'm going to try and walk on the stage tonight. And say a little prayer for me that I don't fall."

She did not. Taylor, with some assistance, walked on the stage to a standing ovation. She made her way to a chair, sat down and accepted her award.

"I was here at the first night, here last year," she said. "I will continue to be here until we defeat the enemy of HIV and AIDS."

"I know of two countries in Europe who are making condoms with (the) virus on purpose, they want to finish with African people as part of their programme to colonise the continent," Archbishop Francisco Chimoio told Reuters.

"I also know some companies who are manufacturing anti-retroviral drugs already infected with the virus, also in order to finish quickly the African people", Chimoio said.

He declined to name the European countries in question or the source of his allegations.

The Catholic Church, followed by 17 percent of Mozambique's population, opposes the use of condoms.

"People must choose what they want between death and I propose to them that (abstinence) is the best way to fight HIV/AIDS," Chimoio said.

More than 16 percent of Mozambique's 19 million people, mostly economically active adults aged between 14 and 49, are infected with HIV/AIDS. About 500 infections are recorded every day, according to the health department.

Diogo Milagre, deputy executive chairman of Mozambique's National Council for the Fight Against AIDS, said the government's efforts to combat the scourge were hampered by a struggling health infrastructure and staff shortages.

"Now over 50 percent of Mozambique's hospital beds are occupied by AIDS patients while infections are sky-rocketing (but) we haven't lost the battle yet as we are now changing our approach," he said, declining to comment on Chimoio's charges.

"We need to study this phenomenon very carefully particularly cultural aspects with we believe are fuelling infections on several fronts at once," Milagre said.

Boost in funds needed to fight AIDS: UN

ZURICH (Reuters) - Global AIDS funding needs to be quadrupled to fight the epidemic's spread in the developing world, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

UNAIDS, a U.N. agency, called for between $32 billion and $51 billion to secure universal access to HIV/AIDS treatments by 2010 for the low- and middle-income countries most in need.

"We are simply not spending enough or doing enough. The world did not act early enough and we are now paying the price," UNAIDS deputy executive director Michel Sidibe told reporters.

The figures were published in a UNAIDS resource report, the latest assessment of the financial means needed to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS in 132 low- and middle-income nations.

According to the World Health Organization, AIDS was the leading cause of death globally in men and women aged between 15 and 59 in 2002. More than 70 percent of people in need did not have access to life-extending antiretroviral drugs in 2006.

This year, around $10 billion in funds from public and private sources was available to fund the fight against the disease. UNAIDS said more was needed.

"We are looking at quadrupling current available resources," Paul De Lay, director of the UNAIDS evidence, monitoring and policy department, told reporters on a conference call.

A previous target of reaching 3 million patients with antiretroviral drug treatments by 2005 failed.

At current rates of increase, only 4.6 million patients would have access to drugs by 2010, rising to 8 million by 2015. That would be less than half those who need it, UNAIDS said.

Universal access by 2010 would provide treatment for 14 million people, but would come at a price. By 2015, that approach would need $45 billion to $63 billion, De Lay said.

De Lay called the 2010 universal access goal an ambitious scenario and said that there could be a "second approach" to achieving universal access to AIDS and HIV treatment.

This would involve individual countries setting their own timeline for achieving universal access. De Lay said all 132 countries would reach this goal by 2015.

"The second phase approach is what most countries are saying they can do," he said. This would require $41 billion to $58 billion.

In addition to more medicine, UNAIDS said new methods of intervention, or ways of reducing the spread of the disease, could be deployed, including male circumcision.

Bono urges G8 nations to open purses in fight against AIDS

Tue Sep 25, 2:59 PM ET

Rock star Bono on Tuesday urged wealthy nations to step up donations to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria "aggressively" at a major donor meeting in Berlin this week.

"When something works this well it deserves to be scaled up -- aggressively. No more excuses for under-funding this most high-minded public health mechanism," the U2 singer said in a statement released by his Africa advocacy group DATA.

The group called on Group of Eight countries to go beyond a promise made at their June summit in Germany to give 60 billion dollars (42 billion euros) for HIV/AIDS over the next few years, of which half had already been pledged by the United States.

The 60 billion dollars includes six to eight billion dollars for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"The G8 summit outcome was disappointing. This conference is a real chance for Germany and the G8 to demonstrate that they will invest in programmes that have a real impact," DATA's European Director Oliver Buston said.

The cash-strapped Global Fund will begin a three-day donor meeting in the German capital on Wednesday in a bid to replenish its coffers to fight the three diseases which it says claim six million lives a year.

It has said that it needs between 12 and 18 billion dollars to fund its existing programmes and initiate new ones between 2008 and 2010.

The meeting will be attended by delegations from the G8 nations, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations and will be addressed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany is expected to announce that it will waive Indonesia's bilateral debt on condition that Jakarta invests the equivalent amount in programmes to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis through the fund.

The Global Fund was set up in 2002 at the instigation of then-UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

It has so far spent some seven billion dollars in grants for 450 programmes in 136 different countries.

Chinese Official: in some parts ADIS situation 'serious'