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HIV/AIDS May Become National Disaster in China, Scientist Warns
The spread of HIV/AIDS in China will create a national disaster if the number of virus carriers continues to swell while intervention measures remain weak, one of the country's top AIDS experts has warned.
"Both the time and opportunities needed to control the deadly disease have become limited. But we've arrived at the critical point: we can control the spread of HIV/AIDS or let it overtake us, " said Prof. Zeng Yi of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine.
In the past few years, China's number of carriers of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which leads to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), has increased yearly by 30 percent, indicating that the country is experiencing a "fast growth period, " Prof. Zeng said.
He estimated that the number of infection cases in the country may surpass 600,000 this year.
"Based on the experiences of some other countries, the outbreak will be inevitable if intervention measures are not taken immediately," Prof. Zeng told Xinhua. "It would be a national disaster if China became one of the top AIDS-stricken nations in the world."
Unfortunately, the possibility of an AIDS epidemic and its serious aftermath have been underestimated, which has resulted in far too few HIV/AIDS-related health care policies, investment and measures for education, scientific research, and intervention campaigns among high-risk people such as drug users, the professor said.
The Chinese government in 1998 published a medium- and long- term national plan for HIV/AIDS prevention and control, aiming to keep the population of HIV carriers to within 1.5 million people by the year 2010.
"The goal may not be achieved if these problems are not tackled, " Prof. Zeng said, calling for comprehensive, long-term HIV/AIDS public education programs as well as redoubled efforts to guarantee the supply of untainted blood.
AIDS-control activists in China have long requested policies that would support medical professionals and social workers at non- governmental organizations to conduct self-protection programs among prostitutes and drug users, encouraging the use of condoms and clean needles.
Although the programs are still controversial in China, the public should be aware that the benefits will inevitably flow to the general population, a health education specialist said.
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