Society

China needs to upgrade health care facilities: expert

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-10 11:30

NEW YORK - China needs to upgrade its health care infrastructure, or it will be a stumbling block on the country's path to development, an AIDS researcher said here Thursday.

"China, on the whole, needs to upgrade the health care infrastructure," said Dr. David D. Ho, director and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC), in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

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Ho said that as a person of Chinese origin, he is really happy and proud to witness the rise of China's economy. But he believed that China also faces challenges, health care being among the biggest.

Founded in 1991, the ADARC was one of the first research centers dedicated solely to the study of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

In the 1990s, Ho and the ADARC established themselves as leaders in the study of AIDS by using antiretroviral (ARV) cocktails which have reduced the mortality rate from AIDS. He was also named TIME's Person of the Year in 1996.

Ho, who travels to China every two months for his research, said he had witnessed a great deal of academic improvements over the last ten years when visiting many clinics in China, but compared to the West, it is quite inadequate.

"The academic side improved very rapidly. I could still remember, even ten or 15 years ago, the laboratories in China were old and ill-equipped, and the work that was being done was not cutting-edge. It all has changed. The facilities are so much better," he said.

However, Ho believed that in the rural areas, the health care infrastructure still remains weak and many rural doctors are poorly trained.

"We believe health care is a right. If a person is denied health care because of lack of money, I think there is something wrong and something unjust," the head of the New York-based AIDS research institute said.

"Health care must be fixed, or it will be a huge obstacle for China's development," he said.

To enhance China's science and technology, Ho said the scientific culture in China should be encouraged to stimulate more discussions and debates.

He also noted that China's current educational system, which mainly focuses on examinations, should be modified to cultivate talents within China.

"If one exam can determine your fate, I guess probably it is not right. Some of the best scientists are not the best test-takers. The ability to imagine and to create is more important in cultivating an innovative generation," he said.

Ho hoped that as the Chinese government has put public health on its agenda and more talents are returning to China's academic institutions and biomedical industry, China's pharmaceutical and biotech research may boom and become another engine to drive its economy.