UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years162 UNAIDS report causes waves in ChinaIn June 2002, UNAIDS issued a report entitled HIV/AIDS: China’s Titanic Peril which warnedthat China was heading for an AIDS epidemic of ‘proportions beyond belief’. The reportcompared Chinese leadership to the officers on the Titanic who refused to believe the factthat the ship was sinking until it was too late 18 .At the end of 2001, it was thought that 400 000 people in China were infected with HIV, upfrom 27 000 in 1991 (subsequently these estimates were revised downwards). The report saidthat this number may only represent the ‘tip of the iceberg’: unless swift countermeasuresare taken, the number of infected people in China could easily soar to 10 million by 2010,placing China on the brink of a catastrophe ‘that could result in unimaginable suffering,economic loss and social devastation’.The UN report added unusually severe criticism of the Chinese Government for its responseto the disease 19 . It blamed China’s slow response on a lack of commitment and leadershipby government officials, ‘dramatically insufficient’ funding for AIDS programmes, and a‘crumbling public health care system’. It said that the Chinese Government had not doneenough to educate the public; many Chinese still erroneously believed that HIV could becontracted through mosquito bites or by shaking hands.The report emphasized ‘the mostly hidden HIV vulnerability conditions’ that could cause theepidemic to explode in China, and warned that China’s predominantly medical response tothe epidemic cannot continue. “If this government wants to do something, it has the powerto do it”, said Siri Tellier 20 , who headed the UN Theme Group that produced the report withEmile Fox, then UNAIDS Country Coordinator.Joel Rehnstrom served as UNAIDS Country Coordinator in China between 2003 and 2007. Heexplains that although the ‘Titanic’ report was not well received by the Chinese Government,there has since then been a great change in the way AIDS is viewed and dealt with in China.With continued advocacy efforts from UNAIDS as well as visits from the Secretary-General,the UN helped to bring the consequences of inaction on AIDS to the Chinese Government’sattention. Piot highlighted lessons that could be learnt from dealing with SARS (SevereAcute Respiratory Syndrome) between November 2002 and July 2003 to lever an effectiveAIDS response in China.On World AIDS Day 2003, Premier Wen Jiabao publicly shook hands with HIV-positive patientsin Beijing, promising “they would have the love and care of the entire nation”. This closelybroadcast event marked the recent shift in the Chinese Government’s response to AIDS.18Pan P (2002). ‘China faces Titanic AIDS crisis’. Washington Post, 28 June.19Ibid.20Ibid.