Aids fears in Xinjiang

Aids fears in Xinjiang

CNC report from Xinjiang

Added On April 1, 2011

Health officials in northwest China's Xinjiang are to up their monitoring of AIDS cases in the autonomous region.

It comes as the region's top health official has warned the AIDS problem is getting worse in the region.

China Report has more.

Bordering one of Asia's major poppy fields, Xinjiang has been plagued by serious drug problems for decades.

The region lies on a trade route for illicit drugs that begins in the so-called "Golden Crescent" area of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The prevalence of needle-sharing among drug users was previously blamed for the spike in Xinjiang's HIV/AIDS cases.

Now officials want to up the monitoring of the disease.

The region's health bureau said on Thursday that local hospitals and clinics should now conduct mandatory AIDS tests.

For counties and cities where more than 500 HIV/AIDS cases are reported, hospitals will be required to carry out the tests to all in-patients, and 80 percent of the out-patients.

For those areas reported more than 300 HIV/AIDS, the tests will be conducted among all in-patients and at least half of the out-patients.

Statistics from the bureau show that Xinjiang had reported more than 33,000 cases of HIV infection by the end of last year.

The figure was about one tenth of the country's total.

Xinjiang's top health official Yin Yulin says the epidemic has entered a stage of "high prevalence" in some parts of the region.

Also, it is "very difficult" to account for and monitor the movements of those testing positive for HIV or AIDS.

According to him, while the spread of the virus among intravenous drug users remains hard to rein in, sex has replaced drug-taking as the main channel of Xinjiang's AIDS prevalence.

China has roughly 740,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Nearly 80 percent of the HIV cases were reported in six provinces and regions, half of which lie on the country's western borders.

http://www.cncworld.tv/news/v_show/13721_Aids_fears_in_Xinjiang.shtml

Securitising HIV/AIDS in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Securitising HIV/AIDS in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Australian Journal of International Affairs

Volume 65, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 203 - 219

Authors: Anna Hayes; Abduresit Qarluq

Abstract

For the People's Republic of China, the localised HIV/AIDS epidemics in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are emerging as threats to those persons affected by the disease, but also to the stability of Xinjiang. This article examines the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Xinjiang and considers the impacts it may have on human and political security. The authors argue that due to its remote location and the religious, cultural and ethnic diversity of its population, and current political situation, Xinjiang poses difficult obstacles to effective programs in tackling HIV/AIDS, and the pandemic has disproportionately affected the minority nationalities in the region compared to their Han counterparts. If the HIV/AIDS pandemic among minority nationalities in Xinjiang continues to grow, it has the potential to further weaken social cohesion there, as well as Uyghur human security. Therefore, a HIV/AIDS pandemic in Xinjiang could tip the balance in terms of ethnic and regional stability.

Full Text
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a934969977~db=all~jumptype=rss
http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/203047_731223281_934969977.pdf

HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang: A Growing Regional Challenge

HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang: A Growing Regional Challenge

Bates Gill & Song Gang*

Introduction

Jutting into Central Asia and bordering on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia, and on the disputed Jammu and Kashmir and Aksai Chin regions, Xinjiang presents Beijing with an array of opportunities and challenges. The region is rich in tapped and untapped natural resources and makes up nearly a sixth of China’s landmass. It provides Beijing with a significant strategic foothold in the heart of the Eurasian landmass and a claim to exert its national interests in this increasingly important part of the world.

Xinjiang – its official name is Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, with “Xinjiang” translating as “New Frontier” – is also home to some of China’s most difficult political and social ills. The challenges posed to Beijing by the Uyghur separatist movement and localized unrest –including occasional acts of violence and terrorism – are well known. But Xinjiang is also an area of growing transnational concern. Chinese authorities suspect that some Uyghur and other ethnic
separatists train abroad, such as in Afghanistan or Pakistan, in order to return to China or to carry out violent activities elsewhere. About 60 percent of Xinjiang’s population is composed of ethnic groups – largely Uyghur, but also with significant populations of Kazakh and Hui
minorities as well – which have familial, linguistic, cultural, historic, and religious bonds across China’s western border to Central Asia. The autonomous region also serves as a convenient drug trafficking route, lying between opium growing regions of Afghanistan and the Southeast Asia and heroin markets in Central Asia, Russia, and Europe. Not surprisingly, intravenous drug use has become a major problem in Xinjiang, especially among ethnic populations in Xinjiang’s cities, such as Urumqi, Yining and Kashi.

Many of these domestic and transnational challenges converge on the growing problem of HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang. Neither Beijing nor the international community has focused sufficient attention on the HIV problem in Xinjiang, and how it relates to broader transnational concerns of drug trafficking, the spread of infectious disease, and political discontent. To dig deeper into these issues, this article examines HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang and considers the transnational security threats it may pose to China and its neighbors in Central Asia.

Full Text
http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/docs/cef/quarterly/august_2006/gillgang.pdf