"The Blood of Yingzhou District", a documentary examining China's 'AIDS orphans' by Chinese American director Ruby Yang, has won an Oscar for best short subject documentary.
79th Annual Academy Awards
Editor's note: It is sadly fitting in a year when the senseless loss of life in Iraq is at all-time high, two films with Oscar nominees contain the word, "blood" in their title.
The plight of orphans in Yingzhou District and Anhui Province is all too real, but one is wrongly led to believe there's an HIV crisis in south China.
-- The Editor
About 6 million people in East China's Anhui Province are threatened by blood flukes - better known to Chinese as "god of plague" because of the heavy death toll it caused half a century ago.
-- Shanghai Star, 2002
RSS
"...So infection of
"...Infection of Cyclospore cayetanensis is present in both urban and rural areas in Anhui Province, and it seemed to be related to personal hygiene habits and immune functions. When ingesting Cyclospore cayetanensisor oocysts contaminated food and becoming immunocompromised, one could be infected.
"Cyclospore cayetanensis usually co-infected with bacteria and caused non-specific symptoms, including inertia, anorexia, abdominal distention, abdominal pain, loose and watery stool, which could easily be confused with other common intestinal diseases.
"Detection of cellular immune function in this study showed that the level of CD3+, CD4+, and CD4 +/CD8+ in the individuals with oocysts decreased, and the expression of CD8+ seemed to be stable.
"It indicated that Cyclospore cayetanensis infection was related to cellular immune function of individuals, and it appeared with the decrease of CD3+ and CD4+ cells, which was associated with the decrease of immune defense, immune clearance and immune reaction to invading Cyclospore cayetanensis. CD4
+/CD8+ is the hub of immunoloregulation network.
"The decrease of CD4+ cells indicated that auxiliary T lymphocyte cell took part in the pathogenesis process of diarrhea, and that both humoral immunity of Cyclospore cayetanensis antibody and cellular immunity response to Cyclospore cayetanensis infection were limited...and led to weak immulogical killer effect."
Excerpt from "Cyclospore cayetanensis in Anhui, China" (Yingzhou District is in Anhui Province.")
By Ke-Xia Wang, Chao-Pin Li, Jian Wang, Ye Tian
P.O.Box 2345, Beijing 100023,China
World J Gastroenterol 2002;8(6):1144-1148
Fax: +86-10-85381893 World Journal of Gastroenterology
E-mail: wcjd@public.bta.net.cn www.wjgnet.com
Copyright © 2002 by The WJG Press ISSN 1007-9327
Parasites (blood flukes) - or AID$ ?
The Blood of Yinkzhou District is a finely produced documentary, and kudos to Ruby Wang for her direction. The film is highly emotional and truly disturbing. The film is about the stigma of AIDS, and the horrible neglect of the childrens' basic needs.
The facts about how the orphans came to be in their siutation is not revealed in the movie, and instead one is wrongly led to believe that there is an HIV crisis in South China.
Who is diagnosing these "AIDS" cases? There is certainly illness, from parasites and bloodborne bacteria . That is not too surprising given the regional practice of pooling blood donations, re-injecting the blood (to make more??) and selling it all over again.
Any number of pathogens can be transmitted in this manner, fatal diseases are easily passed as unsanitary needles push bacteria directly into the skin.
It is doubtful that the childrens' parents died of HIV-induced AIDS. But due to insufficient medical staff and facilities, and an inability to afford expensive lab work, the true causes of death remain unknown and more parents die, leaving more children shunned and alone.
Because AIDS by definitiion manifests itself to the special UNAIDS people as more obvious diseases, a solutions to the problem will be more money for general health, diagnostics, and treatment of the underlying problem - dirty, parasite infested water.
To the UNAIDS body and many fashionable AIDS charities, giving money blindly to drug companies to "help" AIDS patients is a fallacy. It is no favor to push sexy drug cocktails in favor of real diagnostics and real treatment if necessary to deworm a population. The sense of well being that would be restored in millions of affected people across the continents would atone in part for the nightmare of the AIDS mythology.
Anhui Province, in the southeast corner of mainland China, struggles with a host of problems. Poverty is abject and drinking water is scarce. Pollution of the land and water is rampant. Parasites such as Cyclospore cayetanensis, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniasis, and other blood flukes are endemic.
Note that many parasites express the same protein as Gallo's "HTLV-1" or "HIV-1" so an HIV test may be fun for the counselors and profitable for Gallo and the corporate entities, but it will only mask the real problem, as it does everywhere else. Clinically, the symptoms of a parasite, with its inherent immunosuppression, would look just like AID$.
The Shanghai Star published the following report in 2002:
"ABOUT 6 million people in East China's Anhui Province are threatened by blood flukes - better known to Chinese as "god of plague" because of the heavy death toll it caused half a century ago. Of the 41 counties with a history of blood flukes epidemic, the situation has not been controlled in 14, with a population of 5.95 million."
Ruby Yang deserves the Oscar for directing this stunning and poignant report on the shameful way these children who need love are shunned.