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Wang Kerong, an angelic nurse for AIDS patients

By Zhang Junmian: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, July 25, 2014

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"I have long held a dream that the patients with HIV-related illnesses can receive equal, timely medical treatment and live as normal a life as possible without discrimination," said Wang Kerong, a caring nurse in the battle against AIDS, when talking about her dream.

Wang Kerong [File photo]

Wang, born in 1963, is the head nurse of the Home of the Red Ribbon, an organization dedicated to helping those living with HIV/AIDS at Beijing Ditan Hospital. She took up infectious disease control and prevention as her life-long career in 1984 after graduation, and in 1997, she began to work whole-heartedly for HIV-positive patients in China.

Wang does her best to help her patients solve various problems and re-build their confidence. She keeps her mobile phone on 24 hours to answer her patients' calls so that they can get timely instructions on either medical treatment or coping with daily life.

Wang Kerong [File photo]

With her efforts, the annual death toll in an HIV village in Henan Province has dramatically declined from more than 100 to less than ten.

The angelic nurse has assisted in areas with high HIV prevalence across China and has helped train more than 10,000 nursing staff since 2001.

She changed the traditional outpatient treatment method with what she learned during her training in the United Kingdom in 2002. Apart from offering treatment services, nurses now undertake more functions, including education, management, consulting and training. This new approach helps the patients get more help in psychological support, medicine usage, family care, social relief and peer education.

The number of volunteers at the Home of the Red Ribbon has risen to more than 1,000, and even her husband and daughter have become volunteers for HIV prevention.

She has received many titles for her outstanding contributions to AIDS prevention and control, including the Florence Nightingale Prize in 2013 and Barry & Martin's Prize in 2005.

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