U.N. Predicts Chinese AIDS Epidemic

Associated Press ^ | Thursday, June 27, 2002 | AUDRA ANG

[Dog Gone]

BEIJING (AP) -- Ten million people could be infected with HIV by the end of the decade as China approaches the brink of an ``explosive'' epidemic of the disease, according to a U.N. study released Thursday.

The country is ``on the verge of a catastrophe that could result in unimaginable suffering, economic loss and social devastation,'' said the 89-page report titled ``HIV/AIDS: China's Titanic Peril.''

Data collected last year showed 30,736 people were confirmed to be carrying the HIV virus, 1,594 were reported with full-blown AIDS and 684 people had died from illnesses related to the disease, the study said.

But the study said the true number of people with the AIDS virus was between 800,000 and 1.5 million last year -- most of them infected through intravenous drug use or poor sanitation in China's blood-buying industry.

The figure could soar to 10 million by 2010, said Siri Tellier, chairwoman of the U.N. Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, which prepared the report.

``It is more than a disease...it's a disaster,'' she said. ``Once you have a certain concentration of it, it will hit the general population.''

The report recommends the Chinese government spend more on education and prevention and bring the topic openly before the public to remove the stigma of infection so that more people would seek testing and treatment.

``The virus is still spreading, and we need to marshal all our resources in a very different way if we want to stop it,'' Kerstin Leitner, the United Nations resident coordinator in China, said at a news conference.

The study warned that sexual intercourse -- both heterosexual and homosexual -- is fast catching up as a means of infection in China, which reported its first AIDS case in 1985.

Though the government has set up safe blood banks and held a first-ever AIDS conference last year, the report indicated efforts still fall short of effective prevention.

Activists who have tried to raise a public alarm about the disease have been harassed by local officials who are reluctant to admit that their areas have a sex or drug trade.

Lack of knowledge makes China vulnerable to the disease, the report says. Many people still think HIV can spread by mosquito bites or shaking hands. Condoms are not readily available.

[DoughtyOne]

 
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[weikel]

I doubt it they don't like gays in China( at least according tio my friend from there).

[AM2000]

HIV in China (and India and Africa..) is primarily a heterosexual disease.