The State Drug Administration of China has approved the production of a new reagent that simplifies testing for HIV, the AIDS virus.

The new product can give a result within 30 minutes while requiring no additional facilities, compared with conventional testing methods that take at least two weeks, according to scientists at Xiamen University and the Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, which jointly developed the product.

It was convenient for emergency tests in hospitals and blood donation centers in remote areas, and could be used by individuals, said Jiang Yan, a researcher with an HIV/AIDS center under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 1 million people in China are estimated to be infected by HIV, most of whom, however, are still unaware of their situation, partly due to the lack of a testing service.

Only 9,824 people nationwide were confirmed through tests as being HIV positive last year, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said Friday.

A card-like device with the reagent tells whether a person is HIV positive by showing purplish lines when touched with drops of sample blood. A single line on the card indicates HIV negative, while two lines mean that the person is HIV positive.

While the new device was as accurate as other Chinese-made HIV test reagents, which were also on a par with foreign products, it was much less expensive because it was completely produced from domestic materials, said Wang Youchun, director of the Cell Lab of the Beijing Research Institute of Biological Products.

As a result of better efficiency in HIV tests, China no longer solely depended on imported products, which would definitely benefit the diagnosis and prevention of the deadly disease nationwide, Wang said.

As well as diagnosis and prevention, China will boost treatment services since an increasing number of HIV carriers were developing into AIDS patients, according to the MOH.

Experts estimate that between 80,000 and 100,000 patients are awaiting treatment across China at present.

The MOH has chosen 51 counties in HIV-plagued provinces to carry out a program of medical treatment and care, health education and behavioral intervention among people living with HIV/AIDS. The program will be introduced to more areas in the next two years.

(People's Daily February 22, 2003)