Three fifths of officials show little knowledge of AIDS: survey

Almost two in every five Chinese local government officials wrongly believe China has developed a vaccine against AIDS, an official survey shows.

The poll by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee shows more than 60 percent of local government officials have little awareness of AIDS prevention and control.

The survey of more than 3,000 officials showed 38.01 percent thought China had already developed an AIDS vaccine, while 24.46 percent admitted being unsure of AIDS vaccine research.

Only 37.53 percent of officials correctly responded that China had no AIDS vaccine.

The survey was launched prior to an official training course on publicizing AIDS prevention and control. After the course, the officials' awareness had improved, according to a source from the Party School.

The World Health Organization said 120 AIDS vaccine tests had been carried out on people around the world. The ongoing tests include 29 in phase I, four in phase I and II, three in phase II and one in phase III.

Research into Chinese AIDS vaccines has been going on for 15 years, but the country has no intellectual property rights over its vaccines in trial and the research has limited global influence

China has approximately 650,000 people living with HIV, including 75,000 AIDS patients.

Source: Xinhua