[Ip-health] Statement on China's beating of PWA in Henan

[Kate Krauss]

Beating AIDS activists is not acceptable if China expects to be taken
seriously in its efforts to obtain AIDS funding from the international
community.

US AIDS activists, in solidarity with people with AIDS in China, call on the
Chinese government:

1.  To stop harassing and detaining Chinese AIDS activists who are trying to
halt this epidemic and save lives.

2. To provide immediate, free AIDS medication for people with AIDS in China.
A putative challenge from the WHO of 60,000 people treated by 2005 is not
enough when China has an advanced epidemic of at least 1 million. China must
provide treatment to everyone who needs it.

3.  Disclosure of accurate surveillance information on AIDS and SARS -- key
to stopping the epidemics.

4. Disclosure of its plans to deal with AIDS in China. China's March, 2003
plan to scale up prevention and care is not public, nor are the locations of
the 51 counties in 11 provinces where pilot plans are supposed to be
implemented. China also has not publicized the names of the 23 provinces
where, in December, 2002 it said that AIDS is an epidemic due to blood
selling practices.

5. To manufacture generic versions of drugs off patent and issue compulsory
licenses for drugs that have patents in effect in China.

6. To encourage the frank participation of independent Chinese AIDS
organizations, including independent PWAs, in planning and evaluation of
China's AIDS plan, including its application for the Global Fund. These
people are a key to ensuring that China's plan for stopping AIDS will work.


Katie Krauss
AIDS Policy Project
+1 215 545 3104
katie@critpath.org

South China Morning Post
Tuesday, June 3, 2003
 Aids protester beaten, say villagers

 HARRY DORAN in Beijing

A woman with Aids was allegedly beaten by four policemen when she tried to
lodge a complaint with a World Health Organisation
delegation visiting Henan.

Yang Nidan's husband said his 41-year-old wife was in
a weak condition before the beating, but now her doctor feared she would
die.

"She was hurt badly and lost a lot of blood. She needs a transfusion, which
I can't afford," said Liu Baoliang.

Ms Yang was one of about 100 HIV/Aids patients who
went to a hospital in the village of Wenlou in Henan on May 18 to voice
their grievances to a visiting WHO and Health Ministry delegation. The
villagers say they are being left to die by a government that is responsible
for their illness but has turned its back on them. The patients contracted
HIV in the 1990s after donating blood at unhygienic state-run clinics. They
claim that doctors at the local hospital will not  treat them, staff will
not touch them and they are only ever offered basic cough and cold
medicines, which are frequently unavailable.

But 200 local officials and police officers, many dressed in plain clothes,
prevented the patients getting within 100 metres of the hospital while the
delegation was visiting last month, several villagers told the South China
Morning Post.

 Ms Yang protested and was hauled into a police car and beaten, Mr Liu said.

When she asked what law she had broken, the police said: "Do you want us to
kick you dead? We are the dogs fed by the government, so we will bite
whoever the officials tell us to," her husband said.

He said Ms Wang was detained for several hours until the delegation had left
the village.

Wenlou is one of 22 "Aids villages" in Henan province, where perhaps up to 1
 million people have contracted HIV/Aids in recent years, said Hu Jia,
director  of the Beijing-based Aizhixing Aids Research and Education
Institution.

He said village officials selected some "obedient" HIV/Aids patients to give
the  WHO and Health Ministry visitors a distorted picture
of the situation by saying they were all adequately cared for. They also
told them there were 306   HIV/Aids carriers in the village, although the
real figure is probably twice that, Mr Hu said.

One of the patients, a 37-year-old mother of young twin girls, contracted
Aids after donating blood in the village in 1997, like many of her
neighbours. "The local government was advertising it everywhere at the time,
saying it was a good way to earn money," the woman said.

She gave 800cc of blood on three separate occasions, after which medical
staff reinjected 400cc of pooled blood from a container.
 She was paid 45 yuan      (HK$42) each time.
"So I made 135 yuan in total, but I got Aids," she said.

 The woman was one of the many Aids carriers who were
not allowed to meet the WHO experts on their visit last month.

"The government just wants to hide us away. They treat us like grass, just
ready to be cut down," she said.

County medical officials contacted refused to comment on the allegations.

                 SCMP.com