China currently has around a million people infected with the HIV virus which causes Aids, a figure that could increase ten-fold by the end of the decade, a top government health official warned on Friday.
The country is standing on the verge of an epidemic, said Qi Xiaoqiu, head of the Department of Disease Control of the Ministry of Health in an unusually frank official assessment of the problem.
”It is estimated that the total HIV positive population stood at almost one million” at the end of June, Qi told a briefing.
”It’s very difficult to get the exact number, but we can tell you that Aids is at a very dangerous stage in China and on the verge of becoming an epidemic,” he said.
According to a UN report released in June, China could have around
1,5-million people carrying HIV, and faces an ”Aids catastrophe” if a proper course of action is not taken.
Speaking with rare candor on a subject Beijing is often keen to play down, Qi said China could see around a million more HIV cases every year this decade if nothing is done.
”If the Aids epidemic is not dealt with efficiently, by the year 2010 there is the likelihood of more than 10-million HIV or Aids patients in China,” he said.
While HIV and Aids are spreading rapidly in China, the growth rate is falling, at least for the time being, according to official figures.
The late-June figure marks a rise of about 17% over six months, while last year’s overall growth rate was as high as 58%, Qi said.
China currently has an infection rate of about 0,08%, well below the 0,2% set internationally as the maximum for low-incidence countries.
But that is no reason for complacence, given China’s huge population of 1,3-billion, according to Qi.
”Even if the percentage is quite low, it’s still becoming a serious problem now in China,” he said.
For instance, China already has the fourth largest number of cases in all of Asia, he said.
China is not helped in its efforts to curb Aids by local governments’ unwillingness to provide exact figures and individuals’ reluctance to come forward, he said.
The reported cases of HIV only stand at about 30 000, a tiny fraction of even the government’s estimate.
Even more dramatically, there are just 1 900 reported Aids cases, sharply lower than an official estimate of 200 000, Qi said. – Sapa-AFP