HIV in China

China has 200 million migrant (Chinese) workers, of which more than 120 million work in cities. The remainder work in towns. China is at a key stage in its fight against AIDS/HIV. A report from the International Labor Organization estimates that China could lose five million laborers by 2015 if it doesn't take effective measures to address the grave problem.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2007)

Not until 1998 did China have a national, long-term plan to combat HIV. The notion of condom ads was quickly shot down by the Chinese government after an ad played one time on the national television network in 1999. Condoms were viewed as illegal sexual tools by China’s State Administration of Industry and Commerce and were banned from the airwaves. That ban persisted until 2001 when the Chinese Ministry of Health reclassified condoms as “medical devices” instead of a sexual commodity. Still, condoms are not an acceptable part of mainstream China, they are in short supply and are of poor quality.
About.com

China is estimated to have about 700,000 HIV/AIDS cases, with tens of thousands of new infections each year, the government said Thursday, but activists warned the problem was far greater. "The result of estimates is that at the end of 2007, China will have about 700,000 HIV/AIDS cases, and 85,000 with AIDS," Health Minister Chen Zhu told a press conference in Beijing. Chen said there were an estimated 50,000 new HIV infections in 2007, when 20,000 people died from AIDS, figures he described as a slightly better than previous years. ... But independent AIDS activists have long warned that these figures underestimate the rampant spread of the disease. Read more at http://www.terradaily.com/reports/China_says_estimated_HIVAIDS_cases_rise_to_700000_999.html

Hygiene in Jinan

Many Chinese have some interesting habits that, well, are not hygienic. Like not using toilet paper, or water, when they defecate. Like not washing hands afterwards. Like snot blowing. Like public hemming, hawking and spitting. This can be quite offputting!

However, I find that I am becoming increasingly localised, as my lungs struggle with the unceasing pollution. Apart from the sore and perpetually watering eyes, I hawk up terrible globs that are grey-yellow. If I don't have a tissue on me, these globs I try to surreptiously spit in an appropriate place - convincing myself that I am simply recycling Jinan's dirt.

I am listening to the jingoistic Chinese Olympic song on television, "One World, One Dream". It contains the remarkable lyric: "the smell of fresh air everywhere". Perhaps that's the One Dream bit.

Here is an interesting picture. I recently visited a fancy rest room in a mid price restaurant. Look carefully, not just at the dirty artificial roses. The urinals were full of ice cubes. They didn't mask the rank smell. (But they were fun to melt when having a pee !)

Exploring Traditional Chinese Medicine in China

My previous career was in natural therapies, which includes Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). I was delighted to find a TCM University here in Jinan, and decided to pay a visit, and get some of my health concerns attended to at the same time at their clinic.

On arrival at the huge, imposing building I found to my dismay that it was under renovation. So as I stood there scratching my head, I was approached by a 23 yo Chinese student, a girl with an "English name" of Joan, who offered to help me.

And help me she did. She accompanied me as my guide and translator for the next four hours as I went through an amazing process. First I had a consultation with a beautifully preserved woman at the student clinic who referred me to a clinic at the nearby hospital, that was affiliated with the university. We walked a kilometre through back streets to a building I would not have recognised as a clinic let alone a hospital, and paid 6 kwai to see a another beautifully preserved woman doctor. She took my pulses and looked at my tongue and apologised that apart from Chinese she didn't know English - only Russian (which dated her).

Amazingly, during the consultation, the next patient just walks in and sits down, very interested to hear about my medical problems. And then the next patient and her husband. There were now six in the room. I was causing a log jam. I was astounded to see in the next cubicle a patient smoking while he was consulting the doctor.

It was somewhat embarrassing for me to have to translate my medical symptoms through Joan - but she seems to be enjoying the experience of putting her "English major" into practice. I would have been absolutely lost without her, with all the bureaucratic steps (I had to go back to the cashier's office three times as my consultation progressed). I was expecting acupuncture. I was given an ECG for 60 kwai (the cost of the previous night's meal!) and prescribed some western drug (drat!) as well as liquid Chinese herbs in sachets (150 kwai). I needed to return at 5.30 that evening to collect them.


In the dispensary I was amused to see one staff member in a dirty white coat with an ancient abacus in front of her, using a modern mobile phone to do her calculations.

Interestingly, when I asked Joan whether I needed a referral to a specialist, and would the doctor be offended if I asked her, she replied "In China we have a saying that you need to visit at least three doctors!" When asked whether the doctor would refer me, Joan looked shocked. No, that wasn't the doctors prerogative. It seems you have to find your own specialist?

To show my gratitude, I took Joan to a restaurant (with English translations on the menu), and as she was currently seeking a job, introduced her to a travel agent I had been dealing with, who happily advised her how to get a job in his company.

I had to return that evening and was chuffed to catch the right bus and get off at the right place, but it was 6pm when I get there and found the place closed! But an affable man at a side door barked instructions to a student to take me around the back of the building and I was able to collect the (still hot) brewed herbs. Which taste vile.

Bwaaahh pheeuuuuwwwww!!!! (2)

I woke at 3 this morning and gagged. My apartment was reeking. I presumed it was the toilet burping again, or the shower drain (down which I regularly pour copious amounts of bleach), or from a drain or some other source outside. Or a combination of all of these. I still don't know.

I shut the windows, turned on the (windowless) bathroom extractor fan, dripped eucalyptus oil all over my pillows, sucked a menthol throat lozenge, and took short, shallow breaths. But I could only breathe through my mouth for short periods before being parched.

I just could not escape it, nor do anything about it. I felt powerless. It was just horrible. Eventually I fell asleep again, but the stench was still evident in the morning. Then after a cautious, exploratory sniff, I was able to open the windows again. To greet the morning smog.

Then a few minutes later, as I was getting dressed and ready for a full day's teaching, the power went off. It stayed off for 12 hours. (At least it's on again, now!) (You see - I think that the bucket is half full, rather than half empty!)

Speaking of stenches, and buckets, the Chinese sewer system cannot accomodate it seems, toilet paper, and so the local habit it to leave the soiled paper in a bin provided for the purpose, beside the bowl. I just wish the management of most establishments (otherwise relatively hygienic) would dispose of the bin contents frequently and periodically. Or better still that the sewer system was upgraded!

This is the entrance to the ground floor of my apartment. We are greeted by our own garbage bags (usually collected daily), in which, theoretically, is the aforesaid used toilet paper.

Air Pollution

Jinan is one of China's cities, indeed one of the world's cities, with the highest levels of air pollution. Apart from vehicle emissions and coal fired power plants, it has some heavy industry (making steel for truck manufacturing) not far out of the city.
I had thought that the past couple of windy days might have blown away the ever present smog, and give some needed respite to the eyes and lungs. But not so. Perhaps the wind was coming from the direction of the factories!

During the interview I had for this job, I was asked "do you have any chronic respiratory problems?" Duty of care, I was told.

One pleasant effect of the smog is the way the sun tries to penetrate it, especially in the evening. I took these photos tonight, from the park next to our apartments, where families play with their kid. The huge building site in the foreground (the cause of so much local dust) used to a be a sports field for the old University. Unfortunately the building labourers' temporary quarters, complete with a vile smelling latrine, have been constructed opposite the entrance to our apartments. Another form of air pollution. One learns when one must not breathe through one's nose!

Later: a night of RAIN cleaned the air (for a few hours). The result was marvellous! The trees, especially the conifers, had metamorphosed from dirty grey to clean green!

Bowels

I'm learning, I'm learning. Although the food is probably quite hygienic (even street vendors use the old inverted plastic bag trick, and never touch the food when serving), one's fingers definitely are NOT hygienic. All sorts of bugs, including the dreaded hep, can be picked up on the fingers - just by handling money (it really is quite filthy), gripping rails in buses, pushing doors, even shaking hands. So what's the point of using your fingers when eating finger food, like steamed pork buns (yum!) if they have not been thoroughly washed first? I'm learning to use the old inverted plastic bag trick.

Bwaaahh pheeuuuuwwwww!!!!

The toilet in my ground floor apartment last night must have decided to "burp" gas.

The stench of Chinese sewers consumed my apartment. I opened windows and doors, left the extractor fan on all night, and was thankful for a few drops of eucalyptus oil on a tissue near my nose.

I can only hope it is not a regular occurrence :-(

Here is a photo looking into the bathroom. The wooden toilet seat is too small for me so I can't use it. The very Chinese hot water service provides the shower below it via very Chinese exposed plastic plumbing. To get hot water to the hand basin or kitchen I need to carry it in a bowl. There is no shower curtain, so everything gets wet. The floor is always wet. The mop is important. The hose runs from the washing machine hidden on the left to a large hole in the floor from which the terrible smell most probably emanated. The washing machine (as are all appliances) has knobs and buttons and dials in Chinese, which demands some intuitive experimentation.