Providing AIDS care and helping street children
In China, where an estimated 1.5 million people are living with HIV/
AIDS, MSF has begun working with local medical staff to provide care
and treatment. In May 2003, MSF opened a free clinic in Xiangfan city
as part of a project targeting the estimated 45,000 people living with
HIV/AIDS in Hubei province. Most of those who are HIV-positive in this
part of central China were infected after selling blood to blood banks.
Many are rural subsistence farmers with no
access to the local, fee-based health care
system. MSF teams are training local staff
at various hospitals in safe blood and
body-fluid handling and disposal techniques
as well as in providing comprehensive
care to those living with HIV/AIDS.
Other activities include voluntary counseling
and testing, treatment for opportunistic
infections, home-based and palliative
care. At the end of August 2004, 40 people,
including 9 children, were receiving full
treatment, including antiretrovirals (ARVs),
in Xiangfan, and 189 patients overall were
receiving care at the clinic.
| " We are extremely excited about the launch of this project since
it marks a breakthrough for HIV/AIDS treatment in a country
with an escalating HIV/AIDS problem. Although many Chinese
hospitals have the capacity to provide treatment to people living
with HIV/AIDS, the huge cost of the drugs means that most
sufferers have no hope of ever being able to afford them."
– Luc van Leemput, Head of the MSF project in Xiangfan |
On 1 December 2003 MSF began a second
HIV/AIDS project, in Nanning, Guangxi
Autonomous Region. In collaboration with
the Guangxi Ministry of Health and the
provincial center for disease control, MSF
has set up a clinic to provide care and ARV
treatment for 10 to 20 new patients a
month. As of July 2004, 137 patients were
receiving care at the clinic, and of these,
82 were receiving ARV treatment. MSF's
goal is for 250 patients to be receiving
ARVs before the end of the year. MSF is also
creating patient support groups as part of
the fl edgling network of HIV-positive people
in this part of China.
Getting children off the street
MSF continues to provide psychosocial
support to marginalized children in Baoji
city, Shaanxi province where homeless children
have become a growing social problem.
Many of these youngsters have been
exposed to physical and psychological
trauma, neglect, abuse, hunger and rejection.
In cooperation with authorities in
Baoji, MSF has been running the Baoji
Children's Center since March 2001. The
MSF team and civil-affairs educators work
with the children to provide temporary
accommodation, medical and psychological
care, food, schooling, and access to
legal assistance. The full team has also
started conducting outreach activities on
the streets of Baoji.
Closing a sanitation project
MSF officially closed a water and sanitation
project in Kashgar province of Xinjiang
Autonomous Region in October 2003. This
region of western China is predominantly
made up of Muslim minority communities.
In the townships of Yarkand and Yengisar,
teams worked in cooperation with local
authorities to bring clean drinking water to
8,500 people in the area. In addition to
installing 58 water points (each providing
water for an average 125 people), MSF staff
promoted hygiene in the communities.
MSF has worked in China since 1988.
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