Bear with me...there is a lot of reading and links to check out here. But, this is important, so take the time...
The health care system here is hard to describe. Reminds me of Soylent Green. Remember that film with Charlton Heston, where the earth was slowly baking because the sun was dying? The planet was over populated and people were everywhere. Everything was dirty, dusty and lines everywhere of people waiting to get their rations of crackers. That is sort of what a trip to a hospital here in GZ is like; overcrowded...take a number...chaotic. A local village clinic...well...usually has an open front to the roadway (dust and dirt) and doesn't have the most talented of physicians and nurses on hand (those usually end up in the larger state or military hospitals).
Which, when I saw this news article, it didn't phase me much...known about this for years. Then I saw this post by Simon and it clicked that maybe this needs some explanation.
A basic thing that you see a lot of here, is the use of intravenous fluids for any sort of illness. In the USA...its a pill. "Get plenty of rest and take two of these." Here, you show up to a clinic and they hook you up to an IV for a couple hours. Same can be said of blood transfusions. They use them for a variety of ailments...
Tears streamed from victim's eyes as they told this week how they paid for a transfusion thinking it would save them, but instead bought a death sentence.
Li Xige, a postal worker, was infected with HIV when she received a cesarean section in 1995 while giving birth to her first child, but found out too late. The child was infected and so was a second child she gave birth to later.
Her older daughter died last year at age nine, a day after being diagnosed.
Read the whole article. In the early 90's migrants would sell their blood for cash and survival. They would move from village to village, province to province, seeking jobs and selling blood to supplement the income. Much of that blood was tainted through terrible practices in these 'private' blood banks (all blood being taken into ONE container from all donors, for instance) and there was no accurate record of who had giving what, where. HIV infected people would continue to donate and the blood would continue to be mixed with others...and so on. You can see the whole disaster unfolding. Unsuspecting people visit the doctor, he prescribes a transfusion for whatever ails them and they are infected with the virus (as in the story above).
In this same report, they pass along the figure from the government that it estimates 840,000 HIV carriers. The UN estimates at least 10 million carriers by 2010...that is only 4 years away. A monumental problem that only gets worse as federal, provincial and village leaders continue to stick their head in the sand and hope it goes away (much like the initial reaction to the Harbin water disaster).
They have stopped the blood banks and are now becoming more aware of the issues surrounding some of their health practices. But, because this country spends so much of its GDP on defense, building rocket ships and buying limos for government cadres...they can't afford to treat these villagers afflicted with this disease.
If only they had the same sort of urgency behind this as they do with the bird flu...perhaps things would be different.
If you thought this place is an environmental and health time bomb after the news of the past couple weeks...you thought correct.
UPDATE:
The government has earmarked $100 million for AIDS prevention and treatment this year _ eight times more than in 2002 _ with the money to be used for treatment, education and testing, Gao said.
"The Chinese government can effectively control the momentum of the spread of AIDS in the country," he said. "We need to increase funding, enhance surveillance, increase the spread of information and education on the disease."
If there are approximately 840K people (by their own admission) with the HIV virus...but most people say that figure is on low side. Lets assume that number is an even 1 million. The government has earmarked $100 million for treatment AND prevention for this year. So...we split that number and half...that leaves $50 million for treatment...of nearly 1 million people. Fifty bucks, per person, for one year of treatment.
It just doesn't add up.
