aug07-3

By Reuters

Monday August 20, 10:36 AM

BEIJING (Reuters) - Unsafe sex has overtaken intravenous drug use as the primary cause of new HIV infections in China, suggesting that AIDS is spreading from high-risk groups to the general population, state media reported on Monday.

Of the 70,000 new HIV infections recorded in 2005, nearly half contracted the virus through sexual contact, the China Daily reported, citing a report released jointly by the Ministry of Health and the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It's the first time since 1989, when the first HIV infection was detected, for sex to top the transmission list nationwide," the newspaper quoted Gao Qi, of the China HIV/AIDS Information Network, as saying.

China has an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV or AIDS, and while the government has become increasingly open about the problem, efforts to fight the spread of the virus are still hampered by conservative attitudes about sex and suspicion of grassroots activists and non-governmental organisations.

Surveys show that one in 10 sexually active men in China have been involved with prostitution at least once, and the government was taking measures to initiate condom use programmes and AIDS eduction among sex workers, the newspaper said.

It is also focusing prevention efforts on gay men, who made up 7.3 percent of the new infections through sex.

A separate survey conducted by China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention found that although teenagers in China were having sex at an earlier age, 40 percent did not use protection the first time and they had little AIDS education.

"They know little about HIV/AIDS, let alone preventative measures," the China Daily quoted An Jiaao, of the centre's National Institute for Health Education, as saying.

HIV/AIDS became a major problem for China in the 1990s when hundreds of thousands of poor farmers, mostly in the central province of Henan, became infected through botched blood-selling schemes.

China cracking down on AIDS groups

By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press WriterTue Aug 21, 9:22 PM ET

Chinese authorities have cracked down on groups fighting HIV and AIDS, threatening activists, closing their offices and ordering that a conference be canceled, a human rights organization and activists said Tuesday.

The government's actions raise questions about whether it is really committed to fighting HIV and AIDS, New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

"These individuals and groups dedicated to addressing the enormous suffering wrought by China's HIV/AIDS epidemic should not face police threats and harassment," Joe Amon, the group's HIV/AIDS director, said in a statement. The activists, Amon said, deserve "praise and support, not intimidation tactics by state security forces."

The reported crackdown comes amid a general tightening of political control in China in the run-up to a major meeting of the ruling Communist Party. The meeting, expected in October, is held once every five years and sets the political tone and direction for the country.

Officials did not immediately comment. The Guangdong Public Security Bureau said it was not authorized to discuss the matter, referring questions to the Ministry of Public Security. The public security bureau in Kaifeng said it did not know about the case.

Zhu Zhaowu, who leads a branch of activist group Dong Zhen in Henan province, said officials went to his office last Wednesday and gave him two days to clear out.

Zhu said agents with the Kaifeng city Commerce and Industry Bureau said his group "is an illegal organization conducting illegal activities."

An officer also told Zhu to "watch your back after you move out, because Kaifeng can be unsafe," he said.

One of the group's activity centers in Ruanjia village was forced to close last Thursday, Zhu added. Dong Zhen provides legal aid to HIV and AIDS patients.

The organization had planned to co-host a conference Aug. 2-3 in southern China's Guangdong province with the New York-based Asia Catalyst group, said Dong Zhen director Li Dan. But the manager of the hotel where the conference was to be held said police contacted him and requested it be called off, Li said in a telephone interview.

"The Guangdong police didn't contact us directly, however," he said. Li refused to provide specifics, saying "I'm under a lot of other pressure."

The public security bureau in Guangdong had considered the conference's topics "too sensitive," Human Rights Watch said.

There are an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV in China, according to the most recent government statistics from 2005. HIV gained a foothold in the country largely due to unsanitary blood plasma-buying schemes and tainted blood transfusions.

The U.N. has praised China's work in combating HIV and AIDS, including top-level government commitment, proper funding, availability of antiretroviral drugs and outreach programs. However, the executive director of UNAIDS said last month that Beijing still must reach out to more patients in the vast country and overcome a lack of cooperation from some government officials.

Infectious diseases spreading faster than ever

With billions of people moving around the planet every year, the U.N. agency said in its annual World Health Report: "An outbreak or epidemic in one part of the world is only a few hours away from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else."

WHO director-general Margaret Chan said mass travel could facilitate the rapid spread of infectious diseases.

"No country can shield itself from invasion by a pathogen incubating in an airline passenger or an insect hiding in a cargo hold," Chan told reporters.

The U.N. agency warned that there was a good possibility of another major scourge like AIDS, SARS or Ebola fever with the potential of killing millions appearing in the coming years.

"Infectious diseases are now spreading geographically much faster than at any time in history," the WHO said.

It said it was vital to keep watch for new threats like the emergence in 2003 of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which spread from China to 30 countries and killed 800 people.

"It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like AIDS, another Ebola, or another SARS, sooner or later," the report warned.

Since the 1970s, the WHO said, new threats have been identified at an "unprecedented rate" of one or more every year, meaning that nearly 40 diseases exist today which were unknown just over a generation ago.

Over the last five years alone, WHO experts had verified more than 1,100 epidemics of different diseases.

It was therefore vital for countries to share information on outbreaks so risks can be assessed and mitigated, Chan said.

The report called for renewed efforts to monitor, prevent and control epidemic-prone illnesses such as cholera, yellow fever and meningococcal diseases.

International assistance may be required to help health workers in poorer countries identify and contain outbreaks of emerging viral diseases such as Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever, the WHO said.

It warned global efforts to control infectious diseases had been "seriously jeopardized" by widespread drug resistance, a consequence of poor medical treatment and misuse of antibiotics.

This is a particular problem with tuberculosis. Extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) strains of the contagious respiratory ailment have emerged worldwide.

Although the H5N1 bird flu virus has not mutated into a form that passes easily between humans, as many scientists had feared, the next influenza pandemic was "likely to be of an avian variety" and could affect some 1.5 billion people.

Chan noted that the last influenza pandemic was in 1968 and had killed about 1 million people. "We have learned from previous pandemics that even the mildest pandemic causes too many premature deaths. We don't want to see that," she said.

She urged countries affected by human cases of bird flu, including Indonesia, to continue sharing virus samples, deemed crucial to tracking the virus and to developing a pandemic vaccine.

Asia must step up HIV/AIDS fight, experts say

By Ranga SirilalThu Aug 23, 7:58 AM ET

Asian countries must work hard to keep their HIV/AIDS prevalence rates low compared to that in Africa by tackling root causes like poverty, gender inequality and marginalization, experts said on Thursday.

Human trafficking into prostitution, intravenous drug use and conflict continue to spread HIV in Asia, experts warned as the eighth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific wrapped up in the Sri Lankan capital.

"In the Asia Pacific Region, we are at high risk of a massive spread of HIV," said Dr. Samlee Plianbanchang, Southeast Asia regional director for the World Health Organisation.

"This is not only due to the large size of the population and the high burden of sexually transmitted infections, but also due to the prevailing risk behaviors and vulnerabilities as well as inherent social stigma."

The Asia-Pacific region has an estimated 5.4 million people living with HIV, the world's second largest number after sub-Saharan Africa -- where 25.8 million people are infected with the virus.

Anywhere between 140,000 and 610,000 people die from AIDS-related illnesses in the Asia Pacific region each year, according to UNAIDS.

Safeguarding rights of the most vulnerable, such as sex workers, intravenous drug users, and women and children trafficked in the region is essential in tandem with prevention programs, experts say.

"Governments should recognize rights and listen to the voice of women. They ... should stop treating drug use as a criminal offence and treat it as public health issue," said conference chairman and Sri Lankan expert Prof. A.H. Sheriffdeen.

Conference host Sri Lanka has one of the lowest rates of HIV in Asia, with an estimated 5,000 infected people out of a population of around 20 million.

Neighboring India, by comparison, has the world's third highest HIV caseload after South Africa and Nigeria, with around 2.5 million people living with the virus.

Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, the executive director of The Global Fund, also wants to see donors make longer-term financial commitments to combat AIDS.

"The fight against AIDS cannot only be won by countries, it has to involve the civil societies, which has to involve the community affected by the disease. It has to get more and more involvement of the private sector," Kazatchkine told reporters at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.

"We need more resources not only more resources, resources that are sustainable," he added.

The Global Fund, launched by the Group of 8 industrialised nations, has raised $11 billion over the last four-and-a-half years for prevention programmes. It has committed $7.7 billion of that to programmes in 136 countries to combat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"We need as an international community to find a way to have people ... in a position to pledge for longer periods of time," Kazatchkine said.

The Asia-Pacific region has the world's second largest number of people living with HIV after sub-Saharan Africa, where 25.8 million people are infected with the virus. More than 300,000 people die from AIDS in the region annually.

Conference host Sri Lanka has one of the lowest rates of HIV in Asia, with an estimated 5,000 infected people out of a population of around 20 million.

Neighbouring India, by comparison, has the world's third highest HIV caseload after South Africa and Nigeria, with around 2.5 million people living with the virus.

Sex now primary cause of China HIV spread

China cracking down on AIDS groups

Infectious diseases spreading faster than ever

Asia must step up HIV/AIDS fight, experts say

Global Fund urges private sector to help fight AIDS