Results tagged “aids”

"In this province we have 30 million migrants living apart from their wives or husbands whose hunger for sex has never been recognized by society or the government...

• China's internet 'spin doctors' [BBC] China is using an increasing number of paid "internet commentators" in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion. These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news - and then negate it. They post comments on websites and forums that spin bad news into good in an attempt to shape public opinion.
• Why Western Media Mistakes Matter [ChinaGeeks] Every time we post something critical of a story in the Western media — which, for the record, isn’t that often, about 20 posts of our total 197 — this question gets asked. Yesterday it was commenter Hemulen, who phrased it thusly: "I don’t understand why you spend so much time criticizing Western media for not getting everything exactly right and being 100 per cent accurate." It’s a valid question, or at least, one to which the answer might not be readily apparent. After all, the Chinese media routinely commits graver ethical sins as a matter of policy. Shouldn’t we be going after them, instead?
• HIV prostitute' blog hoax zooms on cyber-privacy [China Daily] "A blog that falsely proclaimed that a Hebei province woman is HIV positive was a hoax by an ex-boyfriend intent upon revenge - and a case study into the debate about people's right of privacy in cyberspace. The woman, Yan Deli, a native in Hebei province, tested negative for HIV/AIDS Monday by the local disease control center. Police of Rongcheng county in Hebei province said the blog with indecent photos and words was written by Yan's ex-lover surnamed Yang, in a bid to get revenge on Yan. Yan met Yang in Beijing."

This weekend seems to be a strong mix of intellectual stimulation coupled with a healthy dose of partying. First off, you probably know already, but the JZ Music Festival will run this entire weekend. After Dee Dee Bridgewater rocks it at Yunfeng Theater tonight, the festival will bring together a host of different artists and bands for a huge gathering in Century Park on Saturday and Sunday. Besides that, there will also be a multitude of speakers coming to Shanghai (to discuss controversial theories about China's past and what its future will look like), and we'll celebrate the birthdays of one of our favorite bar spots (Cotton's!), one of Shanghai's funnest DJ groups (Uprooted Sunshine!) and the start of a Shanghai chapter for one of our favorite charitable initiatives during college (Habitat for Humanity!).

• Regulation on puppy love sparks controversy [China.org.cn] "The first local regulation in China to list puppy love as "misconduct" and suggest parents reprimand and stop it has sparked controversy across the country. Heated discussions on the regulation has spread across media and websites nationwide, after the Regulation for the Protection of Minors of Heilongjiang Province, the first of its kind to tackle puppy love, was revised and adopted by the local legislature last month."
• Drugs Don’t Work for Half of China’s AIDS Patients, Study Says [Bloomberg] "Half of China’s AIDS patients stopped responding to treatment over five years and didn’t have access to the back-up drugs available in developed nations, researchers found. Among 48,785 HIV patients who received free treatment under a government program from 2002 to 2008, the drugs curbed AIDS- related deaths but failed to treat 50 percent of the group over the period, researchers led by Fujie Zhang at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention found. The results are similar to those for other low- and middle-income countries, they said. "
• Chief of Google in China Leaving [NY Times] "In what is likely to be seen as a blow to Google’s ambitions in China, Kai-Fu Lee, the prominent head of the company’s operations there, is leaving to form a new venture. Google said in a news release early Friday in Beijing that Mr. Lee, who was president of Google Greater China and vice president for engineering, would leave the company in mid-September."

A male prostitute has now been charged for knowingly spreading the AIDS virus in a highly unusual case, according to Shanghai Daily. Huangpu District prosecutors arrested the prostitute, named Zhang, after he got into a heated argument with a potential John over the price of sex. Zhang had tested positive for AIDS in February, but continued to work as a prostitute because he “didn't think much about the consequences... [he] just wanted excitement.” The rest of the article is a bit of a wash, calling this the first type of this case “this year.” This year? You sure it isn't “ever?”

This goes down as one of the best pieces of news we heard all day: China is going to continue its more progressive bent towards AIDS/HIV awareness and has started a bunch of educational campaigns to inform higher risk groups - including sex workers, who don't have any legal standing in the country despite their prevalence.

The fastest rising demographic of people contracting HIV/AIDS in Shanghai are "city men who have sex with men," according to Shanghai Daily. At a medical forum yesterday, experts said that the amount of HIV/AIDS cases involving these fraternizations has risen fivefold. While incidences of syphilis have remained relatively stable, the HIV/AIDS incidence rate has increased from 1.5% in 2005 to 7.5% in 2007. The forum emphasized that as society is becoming more tolerant o the LGBTa community, intervention and education initiatives should be intensified.

• “Zhejiang University Girl” Exposed By Human Flesh Search [Chinasmack] "On the evening of April 11th, through the human flesh search of netizens, the person who concocted “Zhejiang University Girl” came forward to apologize. The netizen passing as Zhejiang University Girl is “河谷渔风” ["He Gu Yu Feng"], from Jinhua in Zhejiang province, a male, born 1976 December 17. He admitted “Zhejiang University Girl” was fabricated. Reporters contacted and interviewed “河谷渔风”. “Writing this post was simply a fenqing vent. In the beginning it was posted on Tianya, there was no intention to target Zhejiang University, and even less to point at Professor Zheng Qiang.”"
• After Olympics, national spirit soars while human rights lag [USATODAY] "Not everyone agrees the billions spent on hosting the Summer Games was worthwhile. "I hoped the Olympic Games could improve my life, but they only brought disaster," says Zhang Wei, whose home was demolished in 2006 to make way for an Olympic makeover project just south of Tiananmen Square. She applied for a permit to protest but instead was sent to detention for a month. "The police told me it was because I told the truth about the demolition of my property to journalists," she says."
• Will Ditching The9 Help World Of Warcraft Get Past Chinese Censors? [Business Insider] "Starting in June, NetEase (NTES) will get exclusive operating rights to run the game in mainland China, replacing Blizzard's longtime partner The9 (NCTY), according to reports in Chinese media. Hopefully a new partner will help Blizzard through what's been a difficult period in its relations with the Chinese government. Blizz's latest Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, still isn't on sale in China."

• China to expand 9-year compulsory education in ethnic minority regions [Xinhua] "By 2010, more than 95 percent of the population of China's ethnic autonomous areas should have access to the nine-year compulsory education, said the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010) released Monday by the Information Office of the State Council."
• Thai Protests Prevent Asian Summit [Washington Post] "Anti-government demonstrators forced the cancellation of a summit of Asian leaders Saturday when they invaded the meeting site in this Thai resort town. The summit was supposed to bring together the leaders of the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, and Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea."
• In China, Effective Treatment Options for HIV, But Stigma Still Lingers [RH Reality Check] "Last year, South African Supreme Court Justice Edwin Cameron described HIV-related stigma in China as a "tragedy" for preventing people living with HIV from accessing what is otherwise a "very good treatment program." According to his data, whilst between 35,000 and 40,000 HIV-positive people in China are effectively receiving treatment, more than twice that number are unwilling to be tested or receive test results because of fear of stigma and remain untreated."

• Beijing professor's remarks spark angry protests [AFP] "About 30 protesters tried to force their way into China's elite Peking University on Friday to confront a law professor who said 99 percent of the people petitioning the government with grievances are mentally ill and could be institutionalized."
• Chinese Online Games Market Grew 63% In 2008 [Gamasutra] "New data from analyst group Pearl Research shows that China's online games market grew 63 percent in 2008 to a total $2.8 billion. In its new Games Market in China report, Pearl Research forecasts that the Chinese online market will be worth more than $5.5 billion by 2012."
• The Pavilion Wars [The Atlantic] "The upcoming World's Fair should offer the chance to build a showpiece U.S. pavilion. But thanks to behind-the-scenes maneuverings and State Department incompetence, we may end up with a Chinese-funded pavilion—or no pavilion at all."

Is forcing men into unwanted marriages helping the spread of AIDS? According to Zhang Beichuan, a professor at Qingdao University, that—and the lack of men willing to out themselves by taking an AIDS test—has been holding back efforts to treat the endemic. HIV/AIDS was recently declared the deadliest infectious disease in the country.

Scared of AIDS? You should be. HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death in China last year compared with other infectious diseases, claiming almost 7000 people's lives in the first nine months of 2008. China's Ministry of Health said that until three years ago, fewer than 8000 people altogether had died from HIV/AIDS. Now the total has risen to five times that many. The main cause of transmission has switched from needle use to unsafe sex. Something to think about next time you watch your friend have one too many drinks on Tong Ren Lu. Source: BBC

Chinese volunteers have organised a charity event and donated over 100 tonnes of rice to Sarah Obama, the relatively poor step-grandmother of US President Barack Obama who "only recently got electricity in her metal-roofed shack" in Kenya. The rice was for her 82 adopted orphans aged between four and 18 most of whose parents have died from AIDS, as well as other impoverished, starving Kenyans. Said Julius Ole Sunkuli, Kenya's ambassador to China, "She will be very happy to see the support from China after she returns from Obama's inauguration."

• China will start providing two imported HIV drugs, Viread and Kaletra, to patients who have started developing resistance to cheaper, domestic alternatives. This means that nine of 20 drugs to combat AIDS are now available to patients in China.
• The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has condemned China's deportation of a musician from Cape Town, South Africa, who was ordered to leave China within 48 hours when health authorities found she was HIV-positive. Apparently, the woman was not even informed or counselled about her HIV test.
• Health authorities in Henan province claim that significant improvements have been made in controlling HIV/AIDS and that death rates there are "closer to the normal mortality rate and lower than the national average". According to them, Zhumadian, one of the cities hit by illegal blood sales in the 1990s, has seen death rates more than halved to 5 percent in the past six years.

Chilling news from AFP:

MORE than half of Beijing's prostitutes do not use condoms despite sexual transmission having replaced drug use as the most common infection route for HIV, state media said on Tuesday.

Continue reading "Over half of prostitutes in Beijing not using condoms"

A Renmin University-run, UNAIDS-sponsored survey on AIDS in China was just completed last week, and some of the results were very surprising:
• 30 percent said children suffering from HIV/AIDS should not be allowed to attend school
• 65 percent were not willing to stay in the same room as a sufferer
• 48 percent would not share a meal

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India and China are working on the details of a framework agreement to help resolve the complicated boundary issue between the two countries."

"Up to 5 percent of homosexuals in the city were infected, compared with 0.5 percent of women sex workers, said He Xiong, the Beijing Centers of Diseases Control and Prevention deputy director."

This article in the China Daily caught our attention:

Three hundred and twelve travelers were found to be HIV positive in the first seven months of this year, up 19 percent year-on-year, a report released Tuesday showed.

Continue reading "312 HIV-positive travellers found through random blood checks at border crossings"