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Chinese HIV Cases Up 30 Percent in 2006

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 21:00 CST

BEIJING - Chinese state media said Tuesday that reported cases of HIV/AIDS jumped 30 percent in 2006, compared to the year previous, with intravenous drug use the main source of infection.

The reported number of cases has grown to 183,733 this year, up from 144,089 at the end of last year, the China Daily newspaper said, citing figures from the Ministry of Health.

Of the reported cases, 40,667 have developed into AIDS, it said.

The newspaper said the spike in cases was due in part to better reporting by health officials and patients. It said that 37 percent of the cases reported this year were linked to drug use and 28 percent were caused by unsafe sex.

It said 5.1 per cent were caused by people selling blood illegally or receiving infected blood from hospitals. The report didn't say what caused the remaining 30 percent of infections.

Experts say China has hundreds of thousands of other people infected with HIV who don't know it or choose not to report it.

At the end of last year, China and the U.N. estimated that the total number of HIV cases in China was about 650,000, with 75,000 having developed full-blown AIDS.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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