NEW YORK -- The recent warning by the Chinese government that HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly in the country and that new and urgent measures are needed to combat the infection marks an important step in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This is particularly remarkable because, at the beginning of the epidemic, Chinese authorities were reluctant to admit the extent of the problem. China must sustain the political will and combine strategies to deal with the infection.
According to Chinese government estimates, 840,000 people in China are HIV carriers, 80,000 have tested positive for AIDS and 100,000 are believed to have died of the disease. Experts believe that these numbers underestimate the extent of the problem and warn that China could have as many as 10 million AIDS patients in 2010 if the efforts to curb the infection are not adequate.
During the 1990s, HIV/AIDS was considered a "foreign problem" in China, and most Chinese considered the infection totally removed from their daily lives. According to a survey carried out by the State Family Planning Commission, 70 percent of HIV-infected people in 2000 lived in the countryside. Among those, 23 percent had never heard of AIDS.