By Xinhua Writer Wu Jing     

    BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- China could make the move from "learner" to "teacher" in the fight against AIDS, World Health Organization representative to China Henk Bekedam said here Friday.

    After working in China for four years, Bekedam said he had witnessed "a time of remarkable change and growth" in China's health sector, especially in the country's response to HIV/AIDS.

    Bekedam recalled Dec. 1, 2003, when Premier Wen Jiabao visited Beijing Ditan Hospital and publicly shook hands with AIDS patients.

    He said the government had shown a willingness to reach out to marginalized groups and had implemented innovative and best practice approaches to HIV prevention that provided important lessons for the international community.

    He cited the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project in west China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as a good example of its readiness to reach out to marginalized groups.

    This project had Muslim imams educating their followers about HIV prevention. Religious leaders were a powerful force for social change in Muslim communities.

    Bekedam, however, pointed out that although China has made impressive progress in preventing the overall spread of HIV/AIDS, the number of reported cases was rising and pockets of high risk groups persisted.

    The Ministry of Health said on Nov. 22 that the number of people officially reported as HIV infected had risen 27.5 percent since the beginning of the year. By the end of October, 183,733 people had been officially reported, 39,644 more than the figure at the end of 2005.

    Bekedam said the government needed to commit to increasing coverage of effective intervention. Successful programs like condom promotion, methadone clinics, syringe and needle exchanges, and care and treatment programs, still covered only a fraction of the population at risk.

    The country should continue to expand its efforts to reach out to marginalized groups like sex workers and their clients, homosexuals and injecting drug users.

    "China also needs political will at all levels of government to fight HIV/AIDS," he said.

    He said people used to let fear impede the proper understanding of the best way to address and prevent HIV/AIDS. Attitudes were slowly changing, but more understanding of HIV/AIDS was needed of the fact that people living with HIV/AIDS could continue to live long and productive lives if they had access to high quality care and treatment.

    "Awareness about HIV/AIDS is still low and there is still much work to do in fighting stigmatization," he said.

    Bekedam said that as China's domestic response to HIV strengthened, the government could play a greater role in supporting the global HIV response.

    He said the WHO and other partners would continue to support China. Priority areas included: scaling up of intervention programs with quality assurance; strengthening the HIV surveillance system and mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of programs; developing key policies, strategies and guidelines for tackling HIV/AIDS; evaluating current strategies and identifying lessons learnt.

    There were also opportunities for China to help meet the global demand for fixed dose combination and second-line AIDS drugs. China was already playing a role in global efforts to develop an HIV vaccine. China's entry into other areas of the HIV pharmaceutical market would have a substantial impact on bringing costs down.

    "China has distinct comparative advantages in the global HIV response that -- if mobilized -- can be of tremendous benefit to HIV prevention and care efforts beyond its own borders," he said.