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China becoming "like Africa" with AIDS scourge
AIDS in China has spread beyond high risk groups such as injecting drug users, prostitutes and homosexuals and the country is becoming "like Africa" in how the virus is transmitted, a senior health official says."There are 190 new HIV infections every day ... and one percent of all pregnant women in China are infected," said Hao Yang, deputy director general of the bureau of diseases prevention and control at the Ministry of Health. "That is a very high percentage. It is a generalized epidemic," he told Reuters in an interview. "We're now like Africa. Last year, we found that 48 percent of those who were newly infected contracted the disease from sex, so it's not a disease that afflicts only high-risk groups." Africa has the world's highest number of HIV/AIDS sufferers and the virus is spread mostly through heterosexual sex. To combat the problem, it is now mandatory for all entertainment spots in China to make condoms available and methadone clinics have mushroomed all over the country to help drug addicts kick the habit. Hao said for China's 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, first-line drugs had managed to prolong lives but some sufferers were beginning to develop resistance -- partly because they are unaware of the importance of keeping to strict drug regimens. The HIV virus mutates rapidly and patients who fail to take antiretroviral drugs in the right amounts or at the right time will soon develop resistance -- something that is happening all- too-frequently in China, activists say. "So many patients are just taking the drugs haphazardly. Doctors have to spend time to explain to patients how crucial it is to keep to the regimens if they want to preserve their lives," said Meng Lin, an AIDS activist in Beijing. Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-10-17 |
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