China Focus: China lowers HIV estimate to 650,000

China on Wednesday updated its estimated number of HIV/AIDS cases to 650,000, nearly 200,000 less than the 2003estimate, but officials said the smaller figure does not improve the situation.

The new assessment, entitled the 2005 Update on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Response in China, estimates that China currently has 75,000 AIDS patients.

"The methods used in the 2005 exercise are appropriate and data sources are representative," said Dr. Joel Rehnstrom, UNAIDS country coordinator in China, at a news conference at the Ministry of Health along with officials from the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Data collection has improved in the new assessment", said the UN official.

In 2003, there were 194 sentinel sites across the country that gathered HIV/AIDS data, while in 2005 there were 329 such sites, resulting in more accurate figures, he said.

Besides, in 2003 the estimate was made on the basis of HIV prevalence estimates for provinces, but in 2005 prefecture level estimates of HIV and the size of groups at risk were used, he added.

The sharp decrease in the figures is mainly due to an over-estimation in 2003 of commercial blood and plasma donors living with HIV/AIDS, said vice Health Minister Wang Longde.

"But the lower figures do not mean the epidemic situation in China has improved," said Wang, adding "more work needs to be done."

WHO Representative in China Henk Bekedam also said the more accurate picture of the epidemic "is not a rosy one".

"With an estimated 70,000 new infections in 2005, the epidemic here shows no sighs of abating," he said. "We fear the number of new infections this year will be even higher, and this trend could continue in the future.

According to the assessment, more people in China are developing clinical AIDS, and AIDS-related deaths are on the rise. The epidemic is spreading from high-risk groups to the general population.

Wang Longde noted that new HIV cases are being transmitted primarily through injection drug use and sex, indicating a new trend in the epidemic. It will be a priority for future prevention and control efforts, he said.

The assessment also reveals that 25,000 Chinese died of AIDS in 2005, of whom 10,000 were former commercial blood and plasma donors.

"The other 15,000 people who died were mainly drug addicts in provinces and regions such as Yunnan, Xinjiang and Guangxi," said Wu Zunyou, a leading AIDS expert at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2003, the joint assessment estimated that China may have 840,000 people living with HIV including 80,000 AID patients.

Health Minister Gao Qiang last November announced that China hopes to limit the number of people living with HIV to 1.5 million by 2010, but WHO warned earlier that, if no proper measures were taken, the number would rise to 10 million.

"Don't look at figures. Action and response are the key to controlling the epidemic," said Bekedam.

"With the government's clear commitment and strong actions, we are confident that China will achieve the goal," he said.

Source: Xinhua