As the whole nation is immersed in festivity, a village in China's central province of Henan, which has AIDS patients in nearly every household, is also preparing to celebrate, hoping through tears that the Chinese year of the monkey will bring good luck and better therapy.  

Wenlou village in Shangcai County has hit the headlines of worldwide media in recent years for its high incidence of AIDS, a result of illegal blood deals.

Like elsewhere in China, Wenlou's villagers are buying sweets, fireworks and couplets from local markets and housewives are preparing steamed buns, dumplings and other delicacies as the Chinese Lunar New Year sets in, but their grief over the dead has by no means faded away, and their own wounds take even longer to heal.

Cheng Xuezhong, 75, said he dares not enter his family living room. "I cannot stand seeing the pictures of my son, daughter and daughter-in-law," he wept. "They all died of AIDS, after selling blood to illegal dealers."

Cheng's only company is his eight-year-old granddaughter. "We're provided with enough food and clothing. My granddaughter goes to school free of charge," he said. "I have only one wish that scientists work out an effective therapy to cure other AIDS patients."

The village clinic has discharged most in-patients so that they can celebrate the traditional holiday with their family. "We'll go from door to door to deliver pills and give injections to the patients," said a doctor.

Their treatment is free of charge, as the central and provincial governments have allocated at least US$2 million to the control of the disease.

Luo Yurong, a peasant farmer in Houyang village, another AIDS-hit village in Shangcai county, has bought fish and chicken to fix a huge New Year dinner for her family.

Luo and her husband Zhai Zhendong were both infected after selling blood years ago, and their five-year-old daughter was born with AIDS.

"I felt the world had fallen apart when I first learned the entire family was infected," said Luo, who has survived a recent relapse with three months' doses of an anti-virus drug provided by the local hospital free of charge and has become calm over the disease.

Like other AIDS victims in the village, the couple got 50 yuan (US$6) in cash and a bag of flour from the local government as a gift for the new year. "I've seen hope again. I have to live up to the love and care of the government and make a better living in the new year," said Luo.

Most villagers said others' discrimination is a deep wound on their hearts that is hard to heal.

Seventy-five-year-old Cheng Xuezhong cannot keep back his tears as he thinks of his grandson, the only son of his daughter who died of AIDS last year. The boy has stayed away from all his mother's relations ever since.

"We've learned to take things easy these days, as the government has provided us with all necessities and free medical services, but we feel lonely and isolated because no one wants to visit us for fear of being infected and we are not welcome anywhere outside the village," said Cheng Siguo, an AIDS patient who heads a non-governmental AIDS prevention body in Wenlou village, known to many as an "AIDS village."

The county government of Shangcai has set up six care centers that accommodates 76 orphans and 26 senior citizens whose family members have died of AIDS. These homelike organizations are equipped with TVs and gymnastic facilities. On festive occasions, they always receive donations from loving people at home and abroad.

"I hope I'll be admitted to high school in the new year, so that I can go to college in the future," said Nie Juan, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who lost both parents two years ago and is living at a care center with her 13-year-old brother.

The poverty-stricken Shangcai county is located in the southeastern part of Henan Province and is home to over 1 million people. Driven by poverty, many farmers in the county sold blood to make a living before 1995, but were later found to have infected with AIDS.

According to the Ministry of Health, China now has 840,000 HIV-positive people and 80,000 AIDS patients. Some estimates warned that the country's HIV/AIDS-infected population could grow to 10 million to 20 million by 2010.

Experts say the public should have a proper attitude toward AIDS patients: one of love, care, assistance, equality and non-discrimination.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2004)