Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Monday November 6, 2000
Sexually transmitted diseases were virtually eliminated in China in the 1960s and '70s, but they have made a comeback: More than 8 million people are estimated to be infected, with infections increasing at almost 40 percent a year, the China Daily reported.
Posters advertising STD treatments at small, often unregistered private clinics are plastered on walls and lamp posts throughout China.
Despite the clinics' primitive facilities, some sufferers prefer the anonymity they offer to the stigma of treatment at state hospitals and clinics, where there is a greater chance of being recognized. Most hospitals have no special departments for sexually transmitted diseases and there is a serious shortage of qualified doctors to treat such diseases, the China Daily said.
The newspaper said the Ministry of Health is expected to establish a State Diseases Control Center and authorities also will crack down on unqualified doctors and illegal treatment clinics.
Infections and sores associated with sexually transmitted diseases can make people more susceptible to HIV infection, speeding the spread of the disease in China. At least 500,000 people here are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS - a number expected to double within a decade, the China Daily said.
It said gonorrhea seems to be the leading sexually transmitted disease in China, although syphilis has spread very quickly and is the main STD in some areas.
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