field occurred in beijing on november 10.
by official estimates, china has 840,000 people carrying hiv, the virus that causes aids, and about 80,000 aids patients.
despite the fairly large groups of hiv carriers and aids patients, the epidemic is mostly confined to high-risk groups, such as drug users, prostitutes and users of blood products. and it has yet to spread widely in the rest of the nation.
the chinese government is well aware of such perspectives, and the central and local governments have allocated 6.8 billion yuan (us$822 billion) to establish and improve disease prevention and control mechanisms in provinces. each year a special fund of more than 200 million yuan (us$24 million) is channeled into hiv/aids prevention, care and treatment.
since april, free medicine to poor aids patients has been delivered in regions hit hardest by the virus.
just as the impacts of aids reaches social and economic fields of so