A thousand AIDS and HIV patients in southwest China's Yunnan Province will receive free traditional Chinese medicines this year, provincial AIDS control officials said on February 6.

This is part of the province's pilot project using traditional Chinese medicine therapy in AIDS control.

A neighbor of the Golden Triangle, one of the main drug source areas in the world, Yunnan has reported more than 10,000 HIV carriers and AIDS suffers, second in the country to Henan Province.

The Chinese government estimates that China has about 840,000 HIV carriers.

Many believe traditional Chinese medicine, which is cheap and without major side effects, helps improve HIV carriers' immune systems.

(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2005)