U.S. Air Force Flies American AIDS Patient, Stranded in China, to Manila

The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday flew an American AIDS victim out of southwestern China to the Philippines, the first stop on a long journey home after commercial airlines refused to accept him as a passenger.

A C-9A aircraft, the military version of a DC-9 jetliner, was dispatched Wednesday morning from Clark Air Base, 50 miles north of Manila, to Kunming in Yunnan province, to pick up the stranded American, Brent Anderson, 38.

A spokesman at Clark Air Base said that Anderson, who arrived in Manila Wednesday evening, would spend “a couple days in the (base) hospital until his condition stabilizes for the long flight back” to the United States.

An Air Force spokeswoman in Ohio said Anderson would be flown from Clark to Travis Air Force Base in California. From there he would be taken to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, where his family will meet him.

Anderson, who works for a computer-related business in New York, was traveling in China as a tourist when he entered the Yunnan No. 1 People’s Hospital on June 18 with a high fever and respiratory illness.

Tests revealed he was suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a Chinese official said. AIDS renders the body’s immune system unable to resist disease, and there is no known cure.

A Yunnan Public Health Department official said Wednesday that Anderson’s condition had improved and his temperature was normal. Officials at Clark Air Base declined to give an update on Anderson’s condition after he arrived there.