China's HIV/AIDS epidemic situation can be put into four points, which, if not controlled with concrete measures, will become a serious problem that threatens the national safety, social stability and economic development.

This was the joint assessment of the Chinese Ministry of Health and the United Nations Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in China, which was made public in Beijing Monday on World AIDS Day.

The assessment said currently China has a low prevalence nationally, but high prevalence clusters continue to increase at a rapid rate, as the HIV infection rate among high-risk groups and in previous low level epidemic areas is increasing dramatically through intravenous drug use and blood sale.

China has reported 840,000 HIV/AIDS cases, among which 80,000 were AIDS patients. Despite the overall low prevalence rate (an adult infection rate of less than 0.1 percent), the epidemic has spread to 31 provinces of the country.

The assessment said the number of AIDS patients and AIDS- related deaths are also increasing in China, as from 1985 to 2000, the cumulative number of AIDS cases reported was 880, with 496 related deaths, while the two figures reported from 2001 to 2002 were 1,742 and 716, respectively. The reported number of AIDS cases in 2002 increased by 44 percent of over 2001.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is spreading from the high-risk population to the general population, and according to the assessment, the proportion of sexually transmitted HIV infections increased from 5.5 percent in 1997 to 10.9 percent by the end of 2002. Since the first case of mother-to-child transmission was reported in 1995, the proportion of this type of transmission has increased year by year.

The assessment also said there were some factors that increased the risk of an HIV epidemic in China, such as the increase in high risk behavior, the lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, severe social discrimination, the high prevalence of reproductive tract infections among rural women, the HIV risk with blood transfusion and iatrogenic infection, and the imbalance in economic development and poverty between different areas.

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