Vice minister responds to HIV/AIDS protesters
- Source: Global Times
- [14:39 November 27 2009]
- Comments
By Yin Hang
China's Vice Minister of Health said Friday that the central government "will take into account the appeals of the protesters and solve their problems", responding for the first time to a demonstration outside the Ministry of Health on Wednesday by 38 HIV/AIDS protesters from Henan Province.
"We maintain a clear stance, that the central government will put people's demands and appeals as the top priority. If we find any levels of government failed to commit to their duties during our investigation, the related government body will be punished," said Huang Jiefu, vice minister of the Ministry of Health, said at a press conference held by UNAIDS in Beijing Friday.
Huang invited the media to keep a close watch and promise to carry on their investigation in accordance with the law.
Huang also explained that this group of HIV/AIDS protesters from Henan Province was infected through selling blood and blood transfusions in the 1990s. He said those infected with the HIV/AIDS virus through blood transfusion were already under control, and were not the main channel of HIV transmission in China anymore.
On November 25, 38 villagers of Kaifeng, Henan Province, one of the provinces worst-hit by AIDS, through blood transfusions or from their spouses, protested in front of the Ministry of Health in Beijing, the Global Times reported.
The protest came less than a week before World AIDS Day and one day after an international AIDS control meeting in Shanghai, where Minister of Health Chen Zhu said China's HIV-positive population had reached nearly 320,000, prompting health experts to call for stronger efforts to curb the spread of the virus that causes AIDS.
After about an hour, security guards moved the protesters from the ministry compound to a designated petition office several kilometers away, where the protestors said health ministry officials "patiently" listened to them but didn't make any promises.
