February 17, 2011
Bangkok (AFP/http://www.avert.org) - A creative condom exhibition was held in Beijing to build HIV/AIDS awareness, attracting both male and female visitors.
China’s first AIDS case was reported in a traveller from abroad who later died in Beijing in 1985. About 26,000 people died from AIDS during 2009. Most HIV patients tend to conceal their condition.
146 injecting drug users in Yunnan became HIV positive in 1989. The number of AIDS patients then rose to 153 Chinese people and 41 foreigners. Known as the "loving capitalism disease", AIDS was considered the result of contact with the West.
In 2002, condoms were recategorized as a "medical device" rather than a sexual commodity. However, the use of condom has not been promoted on television until 2007.
In 2003, the fight against AIDS was described as a long-term war, and China's AIDS budget of US$12.5 million was doubled.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao reportedly was the first premier to shake hands with an AIDS patient on World AIDS Day 2003.
The estimated number of 840,000 patients was given in 2003. The number of AIDS patients is lower nowadays. However, the figures seem to exclude a large group of HIV positive people, particularly in rural areas.
The highest number of HIV cases was in Yunnan, Guangxi, Henan, Sichuan, Xingiang and Guangdong. The figures account for around 70-80 percent of the country's total patients.
The disease spreading among men having sex with men accounts for five percent and the situation is complicated and understudied.
AIDS has long had a heavy stigma attached to it in China, with sufferers forced to hide their condition. However there have been recent signs that attitudes are changing as the government has started talking more openly about HIV prevention and control in China.
