More HIV infections attributable to male homosexual sex

Sex between men is on the rise as a major cause of new HIV/AIDS infections in China, according to new research by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

In the first 10 months of 2012, 21.1 percent of all new HIV infections recorded in China came from male homosexual sex. This represented a sharp rise compared with 15 percent attributable to the cause in the same period last year, said a report released by the ministry on Thursday.

The report also showed that the number of new infections among young people between 15 and 24 as well as people above 50 years of age are rising year by year.

In the first 10 months, the numbers in the two age groups were 9,514 and 16,131, a year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent and 20.2 percent respectively.

However, the report said the ratio of mother-to-infant HIV transmission among all HIV infections had dropped from 34.8 percent to 7.4 percent in the past decade, preventing about 3,400 children from being infected.

China started a nationwide campaign in 2002 to prevent HIV transmission between mothers and children. The central government has spent 82.66 million yuan (13.1 million U.S. dollars) since 2009 to make free HIV tests and intervention services available for pregnant women in 453 county-level regions, the report noted.

So far about 25 million pregnant women have been given HIV tests and about 17,000 HIV-carrying pregnant women have received comprehensive intervention services, it said.

According to the report, China has established a free voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) network by equipping 2,966 counties around the country with 14,305 AIDS screening labs, 339 confirmation labs and 8,899 VCT outpatient clinics.

The MOH said on Wednesday that 17,740 AIDS-related deaths were reported in the country from January to October, a year-on-year increase of 8.6 percent.

In total, China reported 492,191 cases of HIV/AIDS by the end of October, including 68,802 new cases this year. The first AIDS patient in China was found in 1985.