AIDS Deadliest Infectious Disease in China

There are over 1.3 billion people living in China with approximately 700,000 of those currently infected with HIV/AIDS. While that may seem like a small proportion, a Chinese news agency has recently reported that in only the first three-quarters of 2008, almost 7,000 Chinese residents succumbed to the deadly virus. With these new statistics emerging, AIDS has now been named the deadliest infectious disease within China. By September of 2008, a reported 6,897 residents died from complications due to the virus over the course of the year.

In addition, according to Xinhua News Agency, which gathered its data from the Ministry of Health, there has been a sharp increase in the number of reported HIV infections over the past few years. In 2005, there were roughly 135,000 reported infections; by 2008, though, that number rose to just over 264,000. However, both the Chinese government and UNAIDS speculate that 700,000 people are victims of HIV/AIDS. They feel this estimated number is much higher than those cases that have been confirmed mainly because many people are either hesitant or refuse to get tested. Of those cases, government officials believe that approximately 85,000 of those are victims who are now suffering the effects of full-blown AIDS.

In previous years, AIDS was third on the list of fatal infectious diseases within China. But the latest report now pushes it to the top of the list where it is closely followed by diseases like hepatitis, rabies, tuberculosis and tetanus in infants. Government data reflects that just under 35,000 people have succumbed to AIDS-related illnesses since if first arrived in China in the mid-1980s. China suffered greatly from government officials who denied the severity of the AIDS epidemic. This plays a very large part in why there are so few new cases and deaths reported. In more recent years, however, government officials have opened up the dialogue on HIV more and more and have promised to battle the epidemic head-on with allowing testing to be done anonymously, issuing bans on the discrimination of those patients suffering from the virus and offering free AIDS/HIV treatment for those who cannot afford it.

But despite the progress the government is making in its mindset with AIDS and HIV, strong HIV/AIDS activists are usually shunned, as are those AIDS/HIV patients who fight to gain support for their rights. Research and surveys done in China in 2006 showed that just under half of those patients living with HIV had been infected because of infected needles due to drug use. In 2008, however, health officials started to note that infections from the increasing sex trade were now the main cause of new HIV cases. Also, in the 1990s, blood plasma donation was an extremely popular way to earn money, especially in the more rural areas of China. Because of the tainted equipment used in these schemes, there are some rural areas with infection levels ranging from 10 to 60%.