Some of global business' biggest names have linked up with the
Chinese government to help 5 million migrant workers in Guangdong Province avoid or fight tuberculosis
(TB) and HIV/AIDS.
The China Health Alliance, launched yesterday in Beijing, will
coordinate the project in the southern province from this
autumn.
Founding members of the alliance include global consultant
Accenture, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, medical technology provider
BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) and the China National Textiles
and Apparel Council.
The services offered include education, medical tests, treatment
and support, Francesca Boldrini, director of the Global Health
Initiative of the World Economic Forum, told China Daily
yesterday.
The forum will work with the alliance to tackle AIDS and TB at
grassroots level, with the program expected to extend to other
regions in two years.
Migrant workers from rural areas account for 80 percent of TB
cases in China; and with the heavy urban migration rate rising,
curbing the spread of large-scale TB and HIV infection is an
immense challenge.
The China Health Alliance is expected to bring together member
companies, the Chinese government, UN agencies and non-governmental
organizations in order to respond to the growing economic and
social threats AIDS and TB pose to the country.
"The pilot program in Guangdong will specifically target migrant
workers employed by suppliers of a number of member companies,"
Boldrini said.
"Migrant workers are the toughest to reach with policies and
programs. Business is ideally placed to reach out to them and this
is why we believe the China Health Alliance is a major step," she
said.
The member companies vowed to adopt non-discriminative policies
toward TB, HIV and AIDS patients.
Boldrini added that their experience proved that when the public
and private sectors work together to tackle disease, the impact is
noticeable.
China ranks second in the world behind India for the number of
TB infections. It is estimated that a staggering 45 percent of the
Chinese population is infected with a latent form of TB. The
current number of active cases stands at 4.5 million, representing
15 percent of the global total.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to grow in China. It is
estimated that 650,000 people were living with HIV last year in
China. Of them, 70,000 were new infections, according to figures
provided by Wu Zunyou, director of the venereal disease and AIDS
prevention and control center under the Chinese Center for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Two months ago, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria was launched in the country with US$120 million promised
over the next five years to help tackle the three deadly
diseases.
(China Daily September 12, 2006)