Call for awareness
By Shen Yang
Photos by Yao Fan

12月1日是世界艾滋病日. 今年的主题是"关注妇女, 抗击艾滋". 可能很多人还依然认为艾滋病离自己很遥远. 其实, 目前厦门艾滋病病毒感染者和患者已超过50名. 希望我们的"预防艾滋病"专版能给读者一些启迪. December 1 is World AIDS day. This annual global event is dedicated to remembering the victims of AIDS, learning more about the devastating effects of the disease around the world, and reaffirming the commitment to fight it.

This year's theme is "Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS," which reflects a focus on how the number of victims infected with HIV/AIDS have significantly increased among women. Women now make up half of all people living with HIV worldwide.

Rates have increased in Xiamen

"Since the first case was diagnosed in 1992, there have been more than 50 HIV/AIDS infections reported in Xiamen up till now", said Chenghao Su, an official from the Xiamen Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP).

He said that the HIV/AIDS infection rate is increasing and has stayed at 40% in recent years. However, the new HIV/AIDS infections of this year are twice as many as that of last year.

"There are three main characteristics of HIV/AIDS transmission in Xiamen", said Yizhong Zhang, vice director of Xiamen CDCP. The first is that the infection rate is rising. The HIV carriers reported from the year 2000 up to the end of October this year are almost 4 times of those reported between 1990 and 2000. People who are infected with HIV are not only the high-risk group; some ordinary citizens such as housewives and children have also been reported as being infected.

"In fact, the cases reported make up only a small proportion of the whole population of HIV carriers," said Mr. Zhang, "because many other HIV carriers, under different circumstances, do not want to be tested." The second is the diversity of HIV/AIDS transmission routes. Among all the HIV/AIDS patients in Xiamen, 59.26% were infected through sexual contact and 9.26% were infected through blood transfusions. The first HIV/AIDS case among intravenous drug users was reported in 2002, which might bring about large-scale HIV/AIDS infections. And mother to baby transmission may be reported this year. The third is that most of HIV/AIDS carriers are non-local residents. Among all the reported HIV/AIDS infectors, 81.48% of them are in the floating population.

Best homemade antigen formed in Xiamen

"More than 80%of the in-home HIV testing products are produced using the antigen we developed in 1999," said Jun Zhang, associate professor from the Research Center for Medical Molecular Virology of Fujian Province, Xiamen University. He said this antigen is the crucial element used in an HIV test called "ELISA"(酶免疫吸附法). There were only second-generation tests with lower accuracy available in China before 1999, which were imported from advanced foreign countries. "The antigen we developed is a great breakthrough in the China HIV testing field. The accuracy rate of the test made with our antigen is up to 99.6% which is close to international advanced levels," said Mr.Zhang, "For this achievement we were granted the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2000."

With no effective medicine or vaccine for HIV/AIDS, HIV testing plays an important role in preventing the spread of this epidemic. Mr. Zhang said, "Through tests we can find out who is infected with HIV/AIDS in time, and separate the sources of infection." It's very useful in cutting off the spread of HIV/AIDS through blood transfusion to have the blood tested in advance. The test results for HIV are accurate up to 99.6%, which ensures the safety of using blood related products. Mr. Zhang said they are trying to make improvements on the test all the time. Now they have developed a rapid test for HIV/AIDS infection by which he said the results were available within 10 to 30 minutes. This rapid test will be used conveniently in some special positions such as customs and airports if necessary.

Measures taken to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission

"A good many measures, such as raising HIV awareness, monitoring HIV/AIDS patients and distributing free condoms to citizens, have been taken to prevent the spread of this epidemic by the Xiamen CDCP," said Mr. Su, "Raising HIV awareness among ordinary people is the first step to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, learning how to prevent HIV/AIDS infection is also very useful." Advocating safe sexual intercourse is very crucial since near to 60% of HIV carriers are infected through sexual contact in Xiamen. "Xiamen CDCP is devoted to urging citizens to use condoms while having sexual relations at present," Mr. Su also added, "CDCP is working with the Board of health and other government departments to increase the use of condoms." Blood transfusions rank second for causing HIV/AIDS infections. So the Xiamen CDCP has launched great efforts to enforce the management of any section involved with blood transfusions and the distribution of some other blood related products. Besides these, HIV/AIDS patients have been taken good care of. Requiring NO.1 hospital to provide special treatment for HIV/AIDS patients is also under preparation, according to Mr. Su.

HIV/AIDS transmission routes in China
我国艾滋病病毒传播途径

静脉注射毒品
Intravenous drug use
0.30%

采血
Collecting blood
1.60%

母婴
Mother to baby
8.40%

性接触
Sexual contact
9.40%

血液和血产品
Blood and blood products
18.70%

其他
Others
61.60%

Things you can do to support AIDS Programs

What can you do to help HIV and AIDS programs make a difference in your community? Here are some things you can do:
1. Learn all you can about HIV and AIDS; share what you learn with others.
2. Practice safer sex.
3. Wear a red AIDS ribbon.
4. Volunteer your time to help a local AIDS organization in your area.
5. Encourage your employer to support HIV education on the job.
6. Sponsor someone in an AIDS Walk or an AIDS Ride.
7. Organize a team of friends, family, or co-workers to participate in an AIDS Walk or AIDS Ride.
8. Help your school develop internships for students to work in HIV/AIDS agencies.
9. Invite HIV positive people to speak at your club, school, church, or synagogue.
10. Talk to your kids, family, and friends about HIV.
11. If you are HIV-positive, consider doing public speaking.
12. Volunteer for a local AIDS hotline.
13. Speak out against prejudice toward people with HIV and AIDS.
14. And most importantly ... WHATEVER YOU DO, DO IT NOW.


厦门大学"福建省医学分子病毒学研究中心"于2003年11月30日成立. 该中心主要由硕士、博士研究生组成, 采用国际化管理机制. 该中心是在细胞生物学与肿瘤细胞工程教育部重点实验室的分子生物学课题组基础上成立的. 目前, 该中心在艾滋病诊断试剂方面所作的研究已处于国际领先水平.