A Chinese man looks at a poster about AIDS awareness in Beijing last December. The government said Thursday that the message has yet to sink in across the country.
China registered a sharp increase in reported cases of HIV infections this year, and infection rates among drug users and prostitutes are climbing, the Ministry of Health reported Thursday. “Like many other countries in the world, China is also faced with a very serious epidemic of HIV/AIDS,” Vice Minister of Health Yin Dakui told a news conference in a rare admission by a high-level official.
IN THE first six months of 2001, 3,541 new infections were reported, a 67 percent increase compared to the 2,115 cases reported in the first half of last year, the ministry said.
The cumulative total of known infections was 26,058 by the end of June. Experts believe the real number of people infected is much higher — more than 600,000 by the end of last year, the ministry said.
“In some particular regions, some leaders and also the general public have not fully realized the hidden dangers...
