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WHO: HIV infection rate a serious concern in China

Infection Control Monitor, January 27, 2006

Although China has brought down the number of people living in the country with the HIV virus, international health agencies have warned that with 70,000 new infections last year, there was no room for complacency, the Associated Press reports.

"China's HIV infections have been linked to high-risk behavior. But now sex work is moving it toward the general population," said Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization's representative in China.

By the end of 2005, China had an estimated 650,000 people infected with the HIV virus, 75,000 of whom had full-blown AIDS, according to the study by the WHO, China's Ministry of Health, and the U.N. AIDS agency. Most of the new cases were intravenous drug users or sex workers and their clients. But there was a growing number of infected pregnant women and spouses of the clients of sex workers, the report said.

Bekedam said the new infection rate, roughly 200 cases a day, showed the situation in China was "more serious than we thought." He called for more awareness campaigns in China, and more free testing and treatment for HIV-positive people.

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