China
will have about 780,000 people infected with the virus by the end of 2011
The official Xinhua News Agency of China has
come forward to announce that 780,000 people will be infected with the AIDS
virus by the end of 2011. Most of the infected will have contracted it through
heterosexual sex.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - HIV gained
a foothold in China largely due to unsanitary blood plasma buying schemes and
tainted transfusions in hospitals. In addition, health authorities say
heterosexual sex has now overtaken drug abuse as the main method of
transmission.
Since 1990, when the first cases of AIDS among
Chinese nationals were reported, the epidemic has accelerated. By 1998,
researchers confirmed HIV infections in 12,600 individuals, with the actual
number estimated to be many times higher, on the order of 400,000.
After ignoring or demonizing people with AIDS
for much of the 20th Century, China's authoritarian government has taken a more
compassionate line on the disease in recent years. However, people with AIDS in
China still face difficulties in getting treatment.
Relatives of HIV or AIDS patients who
contracted the virus through tainted transfusions had earlier planned to
protest in front of the Ministry of Finance in Beijing but later abandoned the
plan. Organizer Sun Ya said the group was demanding government compensation.
Sun's 15-year-old son contracted HIV from a tainted blood transfusion in 2002
at the Peking University Dental Hospital in Beijing.
Sun claims others have tried to use the legal
system to fight for compensation -- but courts have declined to take their
cases. Their recent protest was called off on account of tightened security.
Even with advanced medical treatment, a large
majority of Chinese patients with AIDS die. In addition to China, more new
HIV/AIDS cases are now being reported from Asia than from any other world
region. Asia trails only Africa in terms of the total number of those infected
with HIV/AIDS. In Southeast Asia, the annual increase in the number of cumulative
HIV infections now greatly exceeds those recorded in Africa.
The potential for a widespread eruption of
AIDS in China is further heightened by a general lack of AIDS awareness and a
rapid increase in reported sexually transmitted diseases.
Some feel that the spread of HIV in China is
directly related to the ongoing process of economic liberalization and the
resultant and ever-growing transient population.
Some have linked the spread of AIDS/HIV to the
spread of temporary migration, risky behavior and HIV infection in southwestern
China. The use of intravenous drugs and prostitution coupled with a growing
transient population has been seen as a key contributing factor in the increase
and diffusion of socially deviant and epidemiologically high-risk behavior in
China.
Catholic Online
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