China Medical News

On World AIDS Day (Dec. 1^st), health officials from the National Health and Family Planning Commission reported that there were a total of 70,000 new cases of HIV infections in the first nine months of the year, bringing the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS in China to 434,000. On the same day, a health authority from Shanghai mentioned that "the number of new HIV/AIDS cases has dropped from 18.2% in 2008 to this year’s 10.7%” and that "the disease has a low prevalence in the city.”. On the other hand, health officials from Guangdong Province mentioned that there were 7,030 new HIV cases in the province in the first 10 months, including 2,534 AIDS patients, which is a rise of 2.2% from the previous year. They also added that the number of young people in Guangzhou (between the age of 15~24) infected by the HIV virus is rising by 20% a year. (Source: Xinhua)