United Press International - September 6, 2002
Ed Lanfranco From the International Desk

Qi Xiaoqiu, director-general of Department of Disease Control under China's Ministry of Health, said even though the incidence of infection is 0.08 percent -- a low-epidemic country -- the Chinese population of 1.29 billion makes the actual number of HIV-AIDS cases large.

The official said the long-term forecast in the Chinese government's 10-year plan of action predicts there will be 10 million HIV/AIDS patients in the country.

Qi said the figures were based on comprehensive analysis from 48 monitoring stations nationwide with provincial monitoring stations contributing data.

"Exact figures are difficult to arrive at because government at local levels are very reticent to report on actual cases," he said, "a situation compounded by individuals who are reluctant to come forward because of discrimination."

In June this year the United Nations issued a report that strongly criticized Chinese officials for mishandling the burgeoning health and social crisis caused by the disease. The report excoriates the Chinese government's lack of adequate education programs as well as the absence of treatment for those infected with HIV.

The director-general provided a basic geographic breakdown of how HIV is contracted throughout China:

In the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, as well as Xinjiang in northwest China, the transmission of HIV was related to intravenous drug use, Qi said. The provinces abut heroin-producing areas of Southeast and Central Asia.

Qi noted that AIDS from tainted blood products was a problem in 10 provinces of China's interior, including Henan, Anhui, Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi. He added the government had cracked down on illegal blood banks that typically used needles several times. "The government has opened 459 legitimate blood banks," Qi said.

Cases of contracting HIV through sex was highest in China's coastal provinces including Guangdong, as well as major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

A Western health care expert speaking on condition of anonymity told United Press International that "many Chinese are still in denial that this problem threatens to become one of truly epic proportions."

At the news conference Qi said that "AIDS came to China from overseas" and "compared with our neighbors in Asia, China's numbers are still small."

Qi remained tight-lipped despite several queries concerning outspoken AIDS activist Wan Yanhai, a former official in the Ministry of Health who disappeared Aug. 24 in Beijing. Wan is said to be under arrest as part of a crackdown on all forms of possible dissent in the run-up to the Communist Party Congress scheduled for November.

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