HARD FOUGHT BATTLE

In 2003, China's then vice premier Wu Yi visited PLWHA in Henan, and the State Council AIDS Working Committee was founded in 2014, marking the country's large-scale battle against the disease.

The central government enacted a string of policies in 2004, such as providing free antiretroviral treatment to rural PLWHA and low-income city dwellers; free HIV screening; free mother-to-infant transmission treatment; free infant HIV testing and financial assistance for the children of parents that have died of AIDS.

In the same year, a pilot program to use Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to treat PLWHA was also launched, and Henan was one of the five pilot provinces. Currently, the program has helped about 5,000 PLWHA in Henan, a province of more than 100 million people.

Over the past ten years, the PLWHA mortality rate in Henan has dropped to 2.9 percent from 9.23 percent.

Wang Xiulan, 56, from Zhangshi in Weishi County said she was so overcome with shame when she discovered she had contracted the disease that she avoided human contact. In addition, she suffered from the side effects of the Western antiretroviral therapy.

"I lay in bed all day waiting for death," she recalled. But after receiving auxiliary TCM treatment, her life has turned around.

TCM therapy has succeeded in improving patients' lives by raising their CD4 counts, a type of cell in the immune system, and relieving symptoms, such as persistent fever, weight loss and skin rash.

NEW LIFE

Life in Qulou is almost unrecognizable from a decade ago. Villagers now mostly live in two-story buildings; many of the younger generation now live and work in the big cities to help support their families; while PLWHA have found employment in factories.

But medical treatment is just one part of a larger process. The hearts of PLWHA also need healing.

PLWHA across the globe often face discrimination, especially in rural areas, where education on the disease is lacking.

"I felt I was inferior to others and even considered suicide," Wang Xiulan said. "The judgements of others hurt me".

Initially, she was scared to talk about her disease. "People hated you if you mentioned it. Everyone just became very sensitive," she recalled.

One doctor, from the AIDS-plagued county of Shangcai, Wu Zhongren recalled one patient bursting into tears when he put on latex gloves, because she thought it meant she must have the disease.

However, Han Zhiwei, another doctor in Qulou, said: "People are now more tolerant as they now understand this disease and the psychological burden of PLWHA has been alleviated thanks to proper medical care."

Han Ding said he had considered leaving the area but he was too weak for physical labor. His family now ekes out an existence supported by growing and selling wheat, corn and watermelon.

Han is glad that his daughter, who is due to take her college entrance examination, still loves him.

"I'm lucky," he said. "At least I'm still alive. I hope I can live to see the day my daughter walks down the aisle."