US-based Project HOPE announced Tuesday that it will continue to assist China in providing HIV/AIDS training for medical professionals.

Dr. John P. Howe, President and CEO of Project HOPE, said that ten HIV/AIDS training centers are expected be established throughout China.

Dr. Howe said that his organization intended to undertake a second cooperative project with Wuhan University Medical School to hold a three-day national conference on AIDS. Noted foreign and domestic experts, including Nobel Laureate Dr. David Ho, are expected to address physicians from throughout China on the prevention of HIV.

The non-profit organization initiated HIV/AIDS training sessions for 450 medical personnel in central China's Hubei Province last June and September, and expanded the training program by "training the trainers", or asking those trained to extend their training to others.

The latest statistics from the Ministry of Health show that, as of last June, the number of Chinese HIV carriers had reached one million. Nearly 100,000 Chinese people died from the disease in the period that preceded June 2002.

Based on the principle "To teach people to teach others, to help people to help themselves," Project HOPE operates in 32 countries and has been in China since 1983. Over the last two decades, the organization has established an extensive cooperation network with the Chinese Ministry of Health and with medical schools in the areas of dental training, emergency care and burn and medical care education.

More than 1,000 medics in China have received training from the network and a total of 300,000 Chinese people, including medical staff and patients, have benefited.

(People's Daily January 15, 2003)