Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Friday, June 28, 2002
Michael Dorgan, Herald World Staff
The U.N. report, titled "HIV/AIDS: China's Titanic Peril," is the direst warning yet about the threat the epidemic poses to the world's most populous nation. It suggests that China's stability could be at risk if the government fails to urgently combat the mounting AIDS crisis.
"All indications point to . . . HIV/AIDS epidemics in increasing numbers of areas and populations, with an imminent risk to the widespread dissemination of HIV to the general population," said the report, published by the U.N.'s theme group on HIV/AIDS in China.
Kerstin Leitner, the U.N. coordinator in China, said that while the report is alarming it is not intended to imply that China is doomed.
The 89-page report, however, suggests that a turnaround in China's response to HIV/AIDS will not be easy. While Beijing has made "significant progress" over recent years in updating policies, laws and regulations pertaining to HIV/AIDS, the report said, many factors still hinder an effective AIDS response.
According to the report, those factors, including spotty monitoring of new cases, help explain why China's own estimate of the number of Chinese infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, rose from 10,000 in 1995 to 850,000 in April.
Siri Tellier, head of the U.N. group that compiled the report, said the number of HIV infections in China could rise to 10 million by 2010 if the government doesn't do more.
Most HIV infections in China have been linked to drug use and the commercial sale of blood. But sexual transmission of the virus is increasing rapidly among both homosexuals and heterosexuals, which experts fear will accelerate the epidemic.
"It's on the verge of spreading to the general population," Tellier said.
Since signing the Paris Declaration at the International AIDS Summit in 1994, China's government has taken small steps to combat the spread of the disease.
China held its first national HIV/AIDS conference in November, but Ministry of Health sources say only $12 million has been spent annually over the past five years to combat the disease.
Beijing's government, it said, has asked employers to report any "suspected AIDS patients" to local health authorities, and also has called for mandatory testing of prostitutes, their clients and "possible spreaders of AIDS."
The report said such "restrictive and punitive" measures worsen discrimination against those infected with HIV and discourage people from getting tested and treated.
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