China: New five-year plan to fight HIV

The Chinese government has declared a five-year action plan to fight HIV infection in the country. This is considered to be a strong effort to improve prevention and treatment options for the people. The plan includes steps to reduce transmissions through drug use, blood transfusions and from mother to child; minimize the fatality rate; and improve the quality of life of people living with HIV.

The plan was posted on the website of the State Council on Sunday and has several targets to be implemented in the period between 2016 and 2020. It’s planned to reduce sexual transmissions of HIV from men to men by at least 10 percent and lower the rate of transmission from HIV-positive mothers to their children to less than 4 percent and also to provide more than 90% of HIV-infected people with ARV treatment to achieve viral suppression in more of 90% of those treated. International cooperation on research will be strengthened to enhance HIV prevention and treatment, according to the plan.

The previous five-year plan which was implemented between 2010-2015 helped to increase the HIV detection rate to 68.1 percent, and the mortality of those with AIDS dropped by 57 percent.