Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - November 28, 2005

The number of Chinese medically diagnosed with the HIV virus, which leads to AIDS, had grown to 135,630 by end-September, Wang Longde, director of the State Council AIDS Prevention and Treatment Work Committee, told Chinese health officials.

At the end of September last year, China had recorded 89,067 HIV cases.

Health experts say that China's vast size and dilapidated health system mean that only about 15 percent of HIV-positive people are officially diagnosed with the virus, and even fewer receive medical treatment for full-blown AIDS.

Wang told a medical conference that local officials were continuing to cover up cases of infection, fearful that acknowledging the epidemic would harm economic growth.

"Some localities fear that reporting a rise in reported cases will damage their political standing and local economic development, and they're unwilling to expand testing. And certain areas won't even truthfully report cases," Wang said.

Last year, China estimated that by the end of 2003 it had 840,000 citizens infected with the HIV virus. The World Health Organization has given a lower estimate of about 650,000 cases. Some international groups and Chinese AIDS activists put the figure in the millions.

Wang said on Monday that as HIV spread through sexual contact, especially prostitution, through intravenous drug use and from mothers to babies, the virus was more likely to spread throughout the larger population and the number of actual cases of infection was likely to grow.

"The HIV virus is now spreading from high-risk groups to the general population, and we're at a crucial stage in fighting and treating AIDS," Wang said. His comments were carried on a Chinese government Web site as the country prepares for World AIDS Day on Thursday.

The infection rate among prostitutes rose from 2 in 10,000 in 1996 to 93 in 10,000 in 2004, Wang said. And in "high-prevalence" areas, such as the rural central province of Henan, 0.26 percent of pregnant women were found to have HIV.

During the 1990s, many Chinese -- especially in Henan -- contracted the virus through contaminated blood transfusions,

This was a time when cash-hungry peasants sold their blood to professional blood buyers, often accredited by local health agencies or the military. The blood was pooled, plasma extracted for hospital use and the remainder returned to the donors, meaning that one infected person passed the disease to others.

But now 40.8 percent of the confirmed cases came through intravenous drug injections, Wang said, nine percent through sexual transmission, 23 percent through blood selling, and 23.4 percent were of uncertain origin, Wang said.

Wang said China's unreported AIDS and HIV cases presented a threat to containing the disease. "This has created a big problem for controlling the spread of AIDS," he said.

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