The number of HIV carriers in central China's Hunan Province has
been rising rapidly, according to a report by the provincial
disease control center.
The number of new HIV carriers in the first nine months this
year approximates the total number of the past 13 years, the report
says.
Among the carriers, 66 percent were infected through unsafe drug
use, 17 percent through unsafe sex, and 7 percent through blood
transfusions. The causes of the remaining infections have yet to be
identified.
In February 1992, the first person infected with HIV in the
province was found among a group of persons that had recently
returned from abroad. As of September 2005, HIV carriers in the
province amounted to 2, 248, of whom 241 have AIDS.
During the period from 1992 to 1994, two HIV infections were
reported on average every year. But in the first nine months this
year, the registered cases have increased to 999. In the past two
years, the province even reported five HIV cases among children,
including a nine-day-old infant.
"The rapid growth of HIV carriers is partly due to the
establishment of more examination sites so that more cases can be
diagnosed. Additionally, the virus is now transmitted in more
complicated ways," said Chen Xi, an official with the province
disease control center.
China reported having more than 120,000 HIV carriers and nearly
30,000 AIDS patients as of last June, and 7,000 are believed to
have died from the disease. The figures are expected to be updated
before World AIDS Day, which falls on December 1.
(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2005)