AIDS to cause 300b yuan in direct losses
8/6/2006 11:09
Economic losses attributed to AIDS will cost the country about 300 billion
yuan (US$37.5 billion) in the next five years, said a renowned AIDS expert
yesterday in Beijing.
At a Chinese Academy of Sciences conference, Zeng
Yi, chief scientist with the sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS Prevention
Center under the Ministry of Health, said human resources losses due to AIDS are
estimated to reach 285.57 billion yuan from 2006 to 2010.
Citing
economist Li Jingwen, another CAS member, Zeng said the disease will also cause
16.45 billion yuan in agricultural losses.
The Ministry of Health
estimated there are about 650,000 HIV/AIDS cases in the country. About 70,000
new cases were reported last year while 25,000 patients died of AIDS in the same
period.
Of the recorded HIV/AIDS cases, 49.8 percent were transmitted by
unsafe sex, 48.6 percent by drug injection, and 1.6 percent from mothers to
babies, Zeng said.
He said about 288,000 drug addicts were infected with
either HIV or AIDS.
An alarming trend is the rise in cases of women
infected with HIV/AIDS. The male to female ratio has altered dramatically from
5:1 in the 1990s to the current 2:1, even 1:1 in some areas, according to
Zeng.
The situation is more serious in Yunnan, Xinjiang, Guangxi,
Guangdong, Guizhou, Sichuan and Hunan - where the number of HIV/AIDS patients
exceeded 10,000 in each province or autonomous region.
The total from
those areas comprised 89.5 percent of the national total in the drug addicts
group, said Zeng.
He also said the rate of HIV/AIDS infection among drug
addicts increased from 1.95 percent in 1996 to 6.48 percent in
2004.
HIV/AIDS infection through blood transfusions was serious in
provinces including Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Hebei and Shanxi. But the situation has
been relatively under control since 1996, when the government stepped up efforts
to control the sale of blood.
In addition, about 127,000 HIV/AIDS
patients were found among prostitutes and their clients, Zeng said.
Xinhua news
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