China turns to Hong Kong experts for AIDS help

HIV/AIDS groups based in Hong Kong are being sought by health officials in mainland China to help address China's exploding AIDS epidemic, particularly among injection-drug users, the Lancet reports. Needle-exchange programs and methadone treatment for HIV-positive drug users in Hong Kong will be discussed with mainland health officials, who are considering launching similar programs in Guangdong province, home to about 1 million regular drug users. Another problem is the thousands of AIDS orphans and HIV-infected children in Henan province. Unsafe blood donation practices there through the mid 1990s resulted in as many as 1 million HIV infections, and health officials are trying to prevent further spread of the virus through drug use and unprotected sex in the province.