Big Rise in China's HIV Cases

The fastest rise of HIV in China is among gay men in cities. In Chongqing, the largest city in the world, 20% of gay men have AIDS; in some smaller cities it is almost 50%.

Taboos about homosexuality are helping to spread the infection because most gay men marry, pretending to be heterosexual, and thus the infection is spread to their wives. Testing for AIDS/HIV is free but not widely available.

Health professionals concerned about AIDS stress that prevention should be the top priority, but in reality it is not being accorded the importance it merits.

My own take on this is that good nutrition is the best way to boost the immune system and this will both help to prevent catching the disease and help to slow down the progress of the disease. A young man who contacted me for help in 1991, just after he had been diagnosed as being HIV positive, is still alive and is still working (in the Civil Service). He works only part-time these days as he is not well enough to work full-time, and he works at home in order to avoid the exhausting journey to and from the office, but he still has his financial independence and his illness is not a drain on health resources. I advised him to concentrate on optimising his nutrition and he has done so, taking vitamin and mineral supplements as he has felt appropriate. Having the same distrust and distaste of pharmaceutical drugs and their distressing side-effects as I have, he has so far managed to resist continuing pressure from doctors and other health professionals to take them. He also, on my advice, scrupulously avoids all avoidable added salt/sodium in his food and eats plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables.

This reliance on optimal nutrition has served him well over the 18 years in which he has been HIV positive and I believe it would greatly help all HIV sufferers to ensure that they are having a healthy diet with low salt intake, whether or not they choose to take prescribed drugs for the illness.

Margaret Wilde www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk