A top Guangdong
provincial health official Tuesday urged local residents to shun
casual sex and be faithful to their spouses after a total of 749
more people were detected to be either AIDS patients or HIV
positive in the first 10 months of the year.
The AIDS victims include 18 patients and 731 HIV positive,
according to Feng Liuxiang, deputy director-general of the
Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Health, Tuesday. In addition,
one AIDS patient had died this year.
The number of AIDS patients and its virus carriers detected
between January and October saw big growth from corresponding
months of the previous year, Feng said.
And casual sex has been attributed by health experts to be one
of the major reasons that have caused the rapid spread of AIDS in
Guangdong Province, Feng said.
Other AIDS victims are believed to have been infected with the
fatal disease through intravenous injections while using drugs as
well as blood transfusions, Feng said.
This year's figure has helped bring Guangdong's total number of
AIDS patients and HIV positive to 4,532 by the end of last
month.
Of them, 162 have AIDS patients, 4,370 are HIV positive. And 49
AIDS patients have died.
Feng predicted that prosperous Guangdong Province, which borders
Hong Kong and Macao would in fact have more than 30,000 HIV/Aids
patients province-wide.
With Guangdong's opening drive continuing, the province's number
of HIV/AIDS patients will continue to grow in the future, becoming
a serious threat to the southern Chinese province, Feng said.
Guangdong officials will seek more international cooperation and
overseas financial support in fighting HIV/AIDS in the coming
years, Feng said.
(China Daily November 26, 2003)