UNAIDS: Sex Main Cause for HIV Spreading in China

Chen Zhu, Chinese Minister of Health, speaks during the launch press conference of a new UN report...

Chen Zhu, Chinese Minister of Health, speaks during the launch press conference of a new UN report ahead of World AIDS Day entitled UNAIDS Outlook 2010 Tuesday Nov. 24, 2009 in Shanghai, China. A United Nations report says that the virus that causes AIDS is spreading fastest in China through heterosexual sex, a trend requiring changes in strategy to fight the disease. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

(AP)

The virus that causes AIDS is now spreading fastest in China through heterosexual sex, a trend demanding new strategies to stave off a rebound in the epidemic after years of progress in containing it, a United Nations report said.

Data show that 40 percent of new HIV infections diagnosed in China were acquired through heterosexual contact, with homosexual sex accounting for 32 percent and most of the remainder related to drug abuse, which was previously the main source of infections and the government's main focus for prevention.

The rate of infections through heterosexual sex in China tripled between 2005-2007, according to the report released Tuesday in Shanghai by UNAIDS. Since 2007, the number of infections through homosexual sex has more than doubled.

"We are transitioning. We are seeing a shift in the nature of the epidemic," said Michel Sidibe, executive director for UNAIDS. Similar trends in Asia and Africa highlight the need to focus on populations most at risk, such as migrants and sex workers, he said.

"We need to ensure resource allocation is responding to that change," Sidibe said.

The government remains sensitive about the disease, regularly cracking down on activists and patients who seek more support and rights.

In Beijing on Wednesday, a group of more than 30 AIDS patients from Henan province were detained shortly after protesting for compensation outside the Health Ministry building, according to their legal adviser, Jiang Tianyong.

Most of the patients were infected with HIV/AIDS through blood transfusions at hospitals in Henan, according to one of the protesters surnamed Gao, who tested positive in 2007, after her husband died from AIDS.

"We've petitioned the local government, but they've ignored us, so we have nowhere left to go," said Gao, who has already traveled to Beijing twice this year to petition for additional compensation.

"Our local hospital in Kaifeng does not have the adequate experts and medication to treat patients like us. We need specialized care, which is why we have to turn to the central government for help."