China is bringing free antiviral therapy to all citizens living with HIV/AIDS, the top health authority said.

Antiviral treatment should be recommended for all those with HIV/AIDS under China’s newly revised guidelines, said an online notice issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission on Wednesday.

But it has to be on a voluntary basis to make sure they are fully prepared for a treatment that is usually lifelong, it said.

“Treatment facilities must not force people to receive the therapy,” it said.

Wu Hao, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at You An Hospital in Beijing, one of the largest HIV/AIDS treatment centers nationwide, welcomed the initiative.

“It helps with better treatment outcomes for the sufferer and for public health as well.”

The strategy of giving early treatment for all is in line with WHO guidelines issued last year, he added.

According to Wu, the therapy lowers the viral load and thus helps prevent further HIV transmission.

Previously, antiviral therapy was offered only to those who had developed a low level of immunity, which can lead to life-threatening opportunistic infections like pneumonia and encephalitis

He said early treatment improves outcomes and helps prolong life spans, “even similar to that of healthy people”.

Bao Yugang, deputy Asia bureau chief of United States-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, one of the largest NGOs for AIDS treatment and care in the world, said the US had implemented the early treatment strategy about two years ago.

But he stressed good drug compliance is important to prevent drug resistance.

“Informed consent therefore is required to help sufferers prepare for the lifelong therapy,” Wu said.

Xiao Bing, a sophomore at a university in Wuhan, Hubei province, expressed concerns over side effects from the drugs.

He tested positive for HIV in May.

Wu, in response, said drugs have improved a lot and potential side effects were quite limited, like skin rashes.

China has registered more than 577,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, accounting for 68 per cent of the estimated number of infected people, according to the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly 390,000 are receiving treatment.

In 2015, more than 100,000 were given the treatment and the number is expected to double this year, Wu said.

Indonesia has rejected a request by the Singaporean government for access to information on companies suspected of causing annual haze and has called on the city state to deal with the issue under the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP).

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry maintained that the agreement, signed in 2002 and ratified by all ASEAN countries by 2014, was the most effective tool to tackle the haze issue, which the ASEAN expected to be solved by 2020.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said the agreement provided a platform for devising collective efforts to prevent, monitor and mitigate transboundary haze, set up region-wide quick response measures and establish legal means of cooperation.

“We encourage all ASEAN members to use this mechanism to address the issue of transboundary haze in our region,” he said.

Arrmanatha added that at the national level, the Indonesian government had made progress in mitigating the haze problem, which occurs in Sumatra, Kalimantan and some other parts of the country every year.

Haze hits the region again in 2015

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AsiaOne, Reuters, AFP, Berita Harian, The Straits Times, Khoo G Vui

The ministry’s spokesman was responding to Singapore’s bid to obtain information on companies suspected of illegal burning in Indonesia.

Earlier, Singapore’s Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) had issued a statement demanding prosecution of companies linked to last year’s fires, regardless of their origin.

The MEWR said the companies’ blatant disregard for the environmental and social consequences of the haze, which affected millions of people in the region, should not go unchecked.

It said actions under Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA) were aimed at deterring and prosecuting entities responsible for transboundary haze pollution.

“Indonesia should welcome this additional tool to curtail irresponsible activities that have affected the health, social and economic well-being of Indonesians and people in the region,” an MEWR spokesperson said.

The law allows regulators to sue individuals or companies in neighbouring countries that cause severe air pollution in Singapore through agricultural slash-and-burn practices.

It was first proposed in 2013 after a huge rise in the number of forest fires in the neighbouring Indonesian province of Riau caused thick smoke that blanketed Singapore in a choking haze.

Previously, Indonesia raised concerns that the THPA would disregard individuals’ rights to legal and consular assistance abroad, after procedures pursued by Singapore involving an unnamed Indonesian private executive went awry.

Last month, Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) asked a local court to issue an arrest warrant against the director of an Indonesian company who had failed to turn up for questioning with authorities in Singapore, an act that evoked a strong reaction from Jakarta.

The businessperson, who has since left the country, may be detained “for the purpose of investigations” if they try to reenter the country, an NEA spokesman said.

The NEA’s actions are part of a previous attempt to glean information on six Indonesian private firms’ environmental responsibilities with regard to their respective land concessions.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has lashed out at Singapore, saying the country could not “tread on the realm of law that was under Indonesia” and that Singapore “did not respect Indonesia”.

Separately, Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore Ngurah Swajaya said Indonesia was ready to work with Singapore to prevent future forest and peatland fires, but he also wanted the Singaporean government to acknowledge what local authorities in the country had already achieved.

Smoke from fires last year sent air pollution to record levels, resulting in at least 19 deaths from haze-related illnesses and more than half a million Indonesians suffering from respiratory diseases.

The World Bank estimates that the fires and haze caused at least US$16 billion (S$21.6 billion) in economic losses to Indonesia alone.

Schools in Singapore shut as regional haze reaches unhealthy levels

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AFP, Reuters, The Straits Times