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China Sees Huge Increase in HIV/AIDS Cases

China has seen a big increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases this year. Expert say that there has been an almost 30% jump from last year?s cases. The government fears that the fact that the disease is spreading from high-risk groups to the general public, means that it will be become more and more difficult to control an epidemic in this communist country. While, officially 650,000 carry the virus, the United Nations feels that this number is much higher as many people don?t even know that they are carriers.

By October of this year, nearly 12,500 people had died in China from HIV/AIDS. The Chinese government initially ignored the threat of the disease and did not do much to counter the threat. However, as authorities wake up to the dangers of AIDS and the economic and social burden that it places on other countries around the globe, China has started to promote prevention programs through education and creating anti-discrimination legislation.

Several regions in China are already experiencing serious AID/HIV epidemics. This can be seen through the fact that the virus has also been found among pregnant women in this region ? meaning that no longer is AIDS relegated to high-risk groups. However, prostitutes and drug addicts still played a major role in the spread of the disease. Only 38% of prostitutes considered the mandatory use of condoms and needle sharing among drug users was still done 50% of the time.