China chooses AIDS control model from B.C.

China will follow the example set by an agency in B.C. to set its national HIV/AIDS policy.

The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS'calls for widespread HIV testing and treatment for everyone who is medically-eligible.

In a study published last summer in the Lancet the centre observed that highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) essentially a cocktail of drugs used to prevent the spread of HIV in the body halved the number of HIV diagnoses between 1996 and 2009.

China believes that this model of care that will best help it to meet the goal of bringing HIV and AIDS under control there by 2015. The country's proposal calls for widespread HIV testing and treatment.

Dr. Julio Montaner, the centre's director,says theyare looking forward to working with China and that the expansion of HAART "thoroughout the world is critical to containing and curbing the global HIV and AIDS pandemic."

China is dealing with a reported 740,000 people infected with HIV and nearly 110,000 people who have AIDS.