A Sino-US cooperative project to fight AIDS was launched Monday in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.  

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) will offer US$7 million in the next three years to assist Yunnan and neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in their fight against AIDS.

The action came after China's Health Ministry signed agreements with USAID on anti-AIDS cooperation in February this year.

Lois Bradshaw, USAID's Asia-Pacific region head, said Asia has become one of the worst AIDS areas in the world, next to North America and Africa.

There are now more than seven million HIV carriers in Asia, and more than two million orphans whose parents were AIDS patients, said Bradshaw, adding that AIDS poses a huge threat to public security and social stability in Asia as an average of two people are infected with AIDS every minute in the region.

The Sino-US joint project aims to help control AIDS spread in China, to enhance non-governmental organizations' abilities to fight AIDS, and to help AIDS patients get more care and effective treatment.

The project will be implemented in the cooperation with other organizations, including Family Health International, Population Service International, and the Chinese Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2004)