News (Updated February 22, 2009)

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AIDS top killer disease in China last year: govt

BEIJING (Reuters) - The AIDS virus became the top deadly infectious disease in China last year for the first time, killing 6,897 people in the first nine months of 2008, the official news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday.

The number of people infected with the HIV/AIDS virus doubled during that period, Xinhua said, citing a report posted on the Ministry of Health website.

Xinhua said there were a total of 264,302 HIV/AIDS cases by the end of September last year and 34,864 people have died of the disease so far.

United Nations figures estimate that 700,000 people in China were HIV positive by the end of 2007.

Xinhua said tuberculosis was the second biggest killer in the first nine months of last year, while rabies ranked third followed by hepatitis and infant tetanus.

The country reported a one-fifth rise in syphilis last year, with a total of 257,474 cases, while gonorrhea cases dropped by a tenth, China's health ministry said.

China on Sunday launched a national sex education campaign aimed at getting more people to seek treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infertility.

(Reporting by Kirby Chien; Editing by Phakamisa Ndzamela)

Rising AIDS threat for Asian homosexual men

Tue Feb 17, 12:08 PM

HONG KONG (AFP) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Tuesday that a sharp rise in HIV/AIDS infections was looming among Asia 's homosexual men unless they were given better access to health services.

"The proportion of HIV infections being transmitted among men who have sex with men is larger and more significant than we had originally believed," said Massimo Ghidinelli, the WHO's adviser on HIV/AIDS in the Western Pacific, in a statement.

"Action needs to be taken now if a major increase in HIV/AIDS cases is to be averted" in the region, he said.

"We need to target HIV prevention strategies, together with better access to health services, for men who have sex with men."

The homosexual transmission of HIV/AIDS would be discussed by specialists from government and non-government organisations from across the region at a three-day Hong Kong conference starting Wednesday, the WHO said.

A December 2007 review found that in Cambodia and Vietnam , homosexual men were more likely to contract HIV compared with the general population, while in China the risk for homosexual men was 45 times higher than for men in general.

According to the WHO, Asia has the world's largest number of "men having sex with men," estimated at 10 million.

Despite this, a report released by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) found that targeted prevention reached only one percent of the male homosexual and transgender population.

The WHO attributed this low number "to the stigma and discrimination associated with male-to-male sex... and to breaches of human rights, including the right to better health," Ghidinelli said.

HIV rate among women in Swaziland now 42 percent

MBABANE, Swaziland – About 42 percent of pregnant women in Swaziland are infected with the virus that causes AIDS, a 3 percent jump in a single year, according to a government report released Friday.

The small southern African nation has the highest AIDS rate in the world and average life expectancy is just 37 years as a result. The report said the increase in 2008 was partly because more women were taking life-prolonging antiretroviral medication.

An estimated 185,000 of Swaziland's 1 million people are HIV positive, and about 30,000 are receiving antiretrovirals.

AIDS activists blame King Mswati III for doing too little to spread prevention messages and promote condom usage and HIV testing, and they say he sets a bad example by having 13 wives.

"The nation, especially polygamous men, look up to the monarch," said Sphiwe Hlophe, who runs a support group called Swaziland Positive Living.

The king, Africa's last absolute monarch, is widely revered. But he attracted widespread criticism last year for lavish celebrations to celebrate his 40th birthday and Swaziland's 40th anniversary of independence from Britain at a time when the health sector is crumbling under the burden of AIDS.

Health Minister Benedict Xaba voiced disappointment at the increase in new infections among young women, indicating that education campaigns are not working.

"There is therefore a need to accelerate HIV prevention efforts especially those targeted at youth," he said.

Swaziland is promoting male circumcision — which can cut the risk of HIV infection by as much as 60 percent. But there are fears that this might backfire by making men more complacent and more likely to have unprotected sexual intercourse.

Swaziland also has made strides in preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child. In 2003, only 5 percent of women infected with HIV got drugs to protect their unborn babies. This increased to 67 percent in 2007, according to a report prepared by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and the U.N. Population Fund.

U.S. AIDS cases cluster in cities, report finds

19 Feb 2009 21:11:46 GMT

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Most Americans infected with the AIDS virus live in cities, with 10 states accounting for 71 percent of cases, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC breakdown shows that 85 percent of all reported cases of HIV infection were in large U.S. metropolitan areas, up from 82 percent in 2007.

By the end of 2007, a total of 1,051,875 people were infected with the AIDS virus since it was identified in the early 1980s, the CDC found. That included 37,041 new cases in 2007.

U.S. federal funding to fight HIV totaled $23.3 billion in 2008, the CDC said. Fifty percent went for care of U.S. patients, 12 percent for research, 10 percent for cash and housing assistance, 4 percent for prevention and 25 percent for help in other countries.

Last year the CDC reported on its new way of calculating HIV infection rates and said that 56,300 people became newly infected in the United States in 2006.

Nearly half, 48 percent, were men who have sex with other men.

Globally, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS had infected 33 million people and has killed 25 million.

There is no cure for the virus, which is transmitted in blood, semen and breast milk. Cocktails of drugs can help control the infection and keep patients healthy. (Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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