InterPress News Service (IPS); 24 April 1997
Amy Woo

While the HIV virus that causes AIDS is usually found in coastal and border areas and cities, authorities say cases have begun to be reported even in China's interior areas.

"China is undergoing an HIV/AIDS epidemic at present," Minister of Public Health Chen Minzhang told officials and doctors at a recent gathering marking World Health Day here this month.

By the end of October last year, 5,157 cases of HIV infection, including 133 cases of full-blown AIDS, had been reported in the country, health experts said.

But the registered number of afflicted persons is not an accurate reflection of the real situation. The real number of HIV cases is closer to 100,000, say China's health authorities.

The World Health Organisation estimates that HIV prevalence in Chinese adults aged 15 to 49 years of age stands at .007 percent of the populace.

While far below HIV prevalence in countries like Thailand, Cambodia or India, China's huge population means estimated HIV positive people number 50,000 by WHO's conservative estimates.

Since the first HIV infection was reported in 1985 in the coastal province of Zhejiang, there has been widespread belief among the Chinese that the disease is restricted only to the border and coastal areas and big cities.

The hinterlands were believed to be untouched by the HIV virus. One doctor who heads a department at a hospitals in an inland city admitted he could hardly believe the HIV positive results of a blood test when he diagnosed his first such case in January 1995.

"AIDS was originally contracted by foreigners," thedoctor said. "Even if it appeared in China, it was sporadically reported in the big cities, in the coastal provinces and border areas. But how could it happen that the virus appeared in our small inland town?"

Less than two years later, experts estimate that HIV incidence rate in China has been growing by more than 20 percent yearly.

Chinese health officials warn of an uncontrolled AIDS epidemic if drastic measures are not taken immediately. "Last year, the number of AIDS cases rose by 69 percent on the previous year's figure," Chen said.

Experts worry not just about the health toll of AIDS, but its cost to a developing economy. A United Nations study says the uncontrolled spread of the disease may cost China two billion dollars a year in health care and lost labor by 2000.

Even then, the public continues to be unaware of the dimensions of the epidemic. One survey says more than 50 per cent of Chinese people see the situation as being not too serious.

A recent random survey conducted in the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan showed that nearly a quarter of respondents knew little or nothing about AIDS -- and two per cent had never heard of the disease.

About a third attributed the spread of AIDS to the degeneration of morals, while one per cent said the disease was punishment sent by the deities for human failings.

Another report sponsored by the World Bank revealed that about 20 per cent of people sampled in several Chinese cities are unwilling to let their children know anything about AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

Spreading knowledge about AIDS and venereal diseases is often regarded as going against traditional mores and Confucian taboos on talking about sex. The report also said only 10 per cent of respondents had proper understanding of how HIV is transmitted.

The state of China's blood donation system, where 60 percent of annual donations come from paid donors, heightens fears of a looming health disaster. For a single donation at present, most Chinese donors can obtain 120 to 140 dollars and a long holiday from their work units.

But last year's discovery that blood products made by a military factory in Hubei province were contaminated with the AIDS virus stirred fears that commercially-bought blood may not be that safe.

"Some donors just want money and do not care whether they have such problems as anemia or hepatitis, or even if they are infected by HIV," Sun Baiqiu, vice chair of the Red Cross Society, told foreign media after the incident was confirmed by health ministry.

The tainted products were originally used to boost immunity to diseases and in the treatment of liver ailments. The tainted blood, discovered in May during a regular safety inspection, is the first known case of such contamination in China.

The Red Cross official told the press the incident was an example of a case that resulted from commercial blood donation, but declined to elaborate.

In an attempt to guarantee blood quality and reduce the gap between blood supply and demand, the Red Cross Society of China has since launched a drive to encourage free blood donations.

"Free blood donations should be the way out for China's blood program," Sun said. Still, the Red Cross campaign is bound to have a difficult time battling Chinese' widespread reluctance of to give blood.

Traditional belief holds that the integrity of human body and one's health will be affected adversely by donating blood. But in these days of money supremacy in a fast-growing China, what is inconceivable to be done for free is quite likely to be done for a fee. (END/IPS/AP-HE/AB/JS/97)

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