AFP/Beijing
Nurses stand to form a Red Ribbon while holding a banner to mark World Aids Day at a medical school in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China. Today marks the 24th anniversary of World Aids Day
China is due to hold its first Aids Walk - a fundraising walkathon already popular in the US - on the Great Wall, organisers said yesterday, as the nation steps up its fight against the disease.
The AIDS Walk first took place in Los Angeles in 1985 to raise awareness of the epidemic and has since been held all around the US and in Canada.
It will be the first such event in China, where discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients is rife.
The walk — due to take place in October 2012 — is being organised by three non-profit organisations, including the government-backed China Population Welfare Foundation, and has been approved by Chinese authorities. Wei Jiangang, head of the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute, one of the groups involved, said the walk would be the last step of a process that would begin in May with a fundraising drive and participants’ training.
“It will be very helpful to tackle AIDS discrimination -- people will know more about AIDS through training, and they may meet people with HIV during the walk,” he said.
“With the funds we raise, we will set up programmes with hospitals that have foundations for treating HIV/AIDS patients.”
The official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday the number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is predicted to hit 780,000 by the end of 2011, but campaigners say the figure could be much higher.
HIV/AIDS sufferers have long been stigmatised in China, but increased government education has helped raise awareness.
Meng Lin, who works for the China Alliance for People Living with HIV/AIDS— another group involved in the walk — said earlier this year one area of improvement was the nationwide availability of free antiretroviral drugs.