key: cord-0033682-g4r7j8hk
authors: Shao, Yi-ming
title: AIDS research and its role in China’s AIDS prevention and control policies
date: 2008-01-13
journal: Virol Sin
DOI: 10.1007/s12250-007-0042-z
sha: 8b76a60418c1c7974e7b2ebb3dc0fcb912cc620a
doc_id: 33682
cord_uid: g4r7j8hk

By the end of 2005, the estimated number of HIV infected people in China was 650,000. The seriousness of the epidemic calls for effective control measures to tackle the problems in order to avoid the tragedy in Africa from happening in China. “Prevention First” is the cornerstone of the country’s health policy. On 2003 World AIDS Day, Premier Jiabao Wen announced a new national AIDS control policy, “Four Frees and One Care”. This policy clearly shows that the Chinese government has once again taken full responsibility to solve public health problems and has profound impact far beyond the AIDS field. In early 2006, the central government put scientific and technology innovation as a national priority and set the target to build an innovative China by year 2020. Since then, the government has been increasing investment in science and technology with major emphasis on both infectious diseases control and new drug research and development. For the first time, development of 100 new drugs and control of major infectious diseases (AIDS, HBV, TB and other emerging infectious diseases) have been selected as national key scientific projects. China’s best minds in related fields will be pooled to work together in order to remove the technical barriers blocking efficient control of the major infectious disease in China. Knowledge on molecular epidemiology, immunology, pathogenesis, HAART, as well as HIVDR strains will certainly provide urgently needed scientific information for China’s AIDS control program. Only evidence-based strategy from good research will provide long-term effective control of AIDS.

HIV/AIDS was introduced to China in the mid 1980s by foreign travelers and blood products (12) .

The epidemic in China began at the end of the 1980s, when IDUs in Ruili, a small town bordering Myanmar in Yunnan province, were found to be infected by HIV.

The initial epidemics were localized along China's southwest border regions, mostly in IDU populations (1, 5) . By the mid 1990s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was scaled-up by both further spread of drug abuse in other regions and blood contamination in the illegal plasma collection activities in central China (13, 14) . 422 VIROLOGICA SINICA Vol.22, No 6 There-after, a steady increase via sexual transmission has been observed, indicating that the epidemic has entered the general population (6) . By the end of 2005, the estimated number of HIV infected people in China was 650 000 (10) . The seriousness of the epidemic calls for effective control measures to tackle the problems in order to avoid the tragedy in Africa from happening in China (8, 11) . 

National sentinel surveillance of HIV infection in China from 1995 to 1998

Towards a new generation of vaccines: the cytokine IL-12 as an adjuvant to enhance cellular immune responses to pathogens during prime-booster vaccination regimens

Progress in the development of an HIV-1 vaccine

A call for replicating vector prime-protein boost strategies in HIV vaccine design

HIV infected people were first identified in Intravenous drug users in China

Replicating rather than nonreplicating adenovirus-human immunodeficiency virus recombinant vaccines are better at eliciting potent cellular immunity and priming high-titer antibodies

State Council AIDS Working Committee Office and UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China

The Ministry of Science and Technology, and The Ministry of Finance of People's Republic of China

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and World health Organization

HIV-1 drug resistance in China: nation-wide survey and analysis of impacting factors in the national ARV treatment program. TuPp0302 , 3rd IAS conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment

Detection of antibody to LAV/HTLV-III in sera from hemophiliacs in China

Control of transmission of HIV among drug users and commercial blood donors

The epidemiological study of HIV infection among paid blood donors in one county of China