Unsafe sex has for the first time surpassed drug abuse through injections as the No 1 cause of new HIV infections in China and the deadly disease is spreading faster from high-risk groups to the general public, the government said.
Of the 70,000 new HIV infections recorded in 2005, 49.8 per cent were through sexual contact, a report released jointly by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said. Figures for 2006 were not available.
Injected drug use ranked second, accounting for 48.6 per cent of the total. Nevertheless, drug abuse was the dominant transmission route for the 650,000 people living with HIV, according to official figures.
“It’s the first time since 1989 when the first HIV infection was detected for sex to top the transmission list nationwide,” a project manager with Beijing-based China HIV/AIDS Information Network, Gao Qi said.
The new trend indicates a further spread of the deadly virus and a tougher war against the epidemic, Gao was quoted as saying by “China Daily.” To address the challenge, the government has taken a slew of measures highlighting HIV intervention and prevention among sex workers, deemed the “bridge population” linking those at most HIV risk and the general population.
Surveys in recent decades show one out of 10 sexually active men have been involved with prostitution at least once, a leading sociologist at Renmin University of China, Pan Suiming said.