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News/Event Item
China's AIDS Crusader
8 November 2004
By Rod Mickleburgh
Zhengzhou, China — In a vast country of 1.3 billion people ruled by a powerful Communist dictatorship, how could one old lady possibly make a difference? Meet Dr. Gao Yaojie, 77. Her best blouse is 15 years old, she lives in a dusty, rundown apartment in a provincial capital far from Beijing and she has changed the face of AIDS in China.
After years of intimidation and harassment by Chinese authorities, Dr. Gao is winning her long, lonely crusade to focus public attention on AIDS -- in particular, on a horrifying AIDS catastrophe that has swept through hundreds of villages in her home province, Henan.
...The turnaround has been remarkable. Not so long ago, Dr. Gao was shadowed by police wherever she went. Her telephone was tapped. Members of her family were persecuted. When she dared to visit one of Henan's stricken villages, she was more often than not thrown out by officials determined to keep the AIDS tragedy there under wraps.
But suddenly, China is waking up the threat of AIDS and HIV. Beijing has committed itself to an ambitious program aimed at curbing the spread of the dreaded virus and treating those already infected.
Copyright 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc.
For the Full Article, go to:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041108.wxchina08/BNStory/International/
category: News from Other Sources : AIDS News
contributed by Andrea Welch on 9 November 2004
Asia : China
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