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Written by: Hao Ziyu
2020-12-11 18:00
Last update date: 2020-12-11 18:07
Every December 1st is "World AIDS Day".
As of September 30 this year, Hong Kong had a total of 2,208 AIDS patients and a total of 10,675 HIV-infected persons.
To be fair, the SAR government has never underestimated AIDS, but it has always focused on treatment rather than prevention. Not only has it fallen behind the world, but it has also greatly reduced the effectiveness of prevention and treatment, and even spent a lot of money.
HIV infection is divided into three stages. Early HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus, human immunodeficiency virus) antibodies are positive, and HIV can be detected in the blood, but no clinical symptoms appear. The late manifestation is AIDS, because the immune system gradually Weakness causes many diseases.
Because of the strong spread of HIV, AIDS is not only a personal disease, but "prevention and treatment of AIDS" has also been elevated to the public health responsibility of the world. Hong Kong has always been serious.
The government has produced a "must have a set" booklet for the public to download.
(Screenshot of government website)
Public money may not be used well
There is no denying the fact that the Hong Kong government has indeed "spare no financial resources."
As early as 1993, the Finance Committee of the British Hong Kong Legislative Council allocated 350 million yuan to set up the "AIDS Trust Fund" to provide financial assistance, improve medical treatment and support services for hemophilia patients infected with HIV; 20 years later, until 2013 By 2014, the SAR government will inject another 350 million yuan into the fund to continue to support related services.
However, public funds may not be used properly.
According to the 2017/2018 annual report submitted to the Legislative Council by the Fund, a total of 60.84 million yuan was provided in that year, of which more than half was 37.2 million for publicity and education, 14.74 million for medical treatment and support, and 8.91 million Yuan is an additional preferential grant.
What’s even more shocking is that the focus of publicity and education can be said to be "as a day for decades". It is "the correct use of condoms." However, the world has already vigorously promoted "self-testing" and "pre-exposure preventive drug administration ( PrEP)"-refers to taking preventive drugs before you are infected with HIV to reduce the possibility of infection.
AIDS is not necessarily transmitted through sexual intercourse, and it may also be transmitted from the mother to the fetus.
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Prevention measures are behind the world
As early as 2015, the World Health Organization recommended that the AIDS prevention drug PrEP be one of the most important measures for AIDS prevention and treatment in the world. After vigorous promotion in individual regions, the number of HIV infections has dropped significantly.
However, the Hong Kong Advisory Council on AIDS published the "Hong Kong AIDS Recommendation Strategy (2017-2021)" in 2017. It stated that before implementing PrEP as a public health project, the authorities must consider cost-effectiveness, who will pay for it, financial sustainability, and community acceptance. Many factors such as the degree and so on-in short, the same as the thinking of dealing with other diseases, it is still "emphasis on treatment rather than prevention"; the problem is, after "exposure" (after having contact with HIV-infected persons) Inspection, administration, and even treatment often require more resources.
Since PrEP determines its prices according to the economic levels of different regions, in Hong Kong, where prices are the most expensive in the world, a bottle of PrEP can be as high as HK$6,000 per month, accounting for one-third of the median income of workers.
In order to strengthen protection, some Hong Kong people often go to Thailand to buy medicines, because each bottle only costs 300 Hong Kong dollars. However, this year, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the medicines are almost "cut off".
To be fair, it is not that the SAR government has paid attention to AIDS, but it seems that it has not yet found more precise prevention and control measures.
(Profile picture)
Don't just focus on treatment and ignore prevention
However, looking at the surrounding areas, with the help of the government, PrEP has been widely used.
Take Taiwan as an example. As early as 2016/2017, the local Department of Disease Control launched the "HIV Screening and Pre-HIV Exposure Prophylactic Administration (PrEP) Precursor Program" to provide participants with limited drug subsidies. The monthly drug burden, which costs about NT$7,000 (about HK$1,900), has been significantly reduced to less than NT$1,000 (about HK$272) per month.
To be fair, it is not that the SAR government has paid attention to AIDS, but it seems that it has not yet found more precise prevention and control measures.
For example, the "Hospital Authority's Drug List" included AIDS medicines early on, and subsidized most of the expenses for AIDS patients.
However, the government's funding is only limited to people who have been infected with HIV and ignores potentially infected groups with whom they have close contact.
To a certain extent, this reflects the Hong Kong Government’s medical policy thinking of "emphasis on treatment rather than prevention", that is, it would rather spend more human and material resources on treating diseases than focusing on disease prevention and the public. Health management.
AIDS in-depth report condoms