AIDS experts: 'Mobile men with money' risky
By Luo Man (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-02 06:15

"It never occurs to you that you might have AIDS," said Manchester.

Most people infected in China do not know.

The number of cases detected every year is rising. A few years ago, the average number of new cases detected in Shanghai was between 60 and 70 per year. In 2002 there were about 100 and that almost doubled in 2003. By 2004, the number of new cases was up to 239.

That is the number of known cases, said Pan Xiaozhang, an HIV/AIDS specialist at Huashan Hospital in Shanghai.

"We don't know about most cases of infection."

He estimated there could be between 8,000 and 10,000 other cases in Shanghai.

"I think the situation is not good. Just according to my information, the number of undetected infections is getting higher.

"I think transmissions through (unprotected) sex is the major road.

"The situation is different from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces where most people were infected by intravenous drug use.

"In Shanghai, prostitutes and people who (use) prostitutes are most vulnerable."

Although a large portion of China's infections were the result of tainted blood donations or transfusions and, later, intravenous drug use, most new cases are now the result of unprotected sex.

Condom use in China is still not common and prostitutes can earn up to 60 per cent more money for providing unprotected sex, according to studies by UNAIDS a United Nations project on HIV/AIDS.