HIV/AIDS rates are on the rise in China, especially among women. Experts believe part of the problem is lack of education and information on sexual health.
“The number of women infected with HIV/Aids is climbing,” Wei Jian’an, an official with China’s Aids Prevention and Treatment office, told the China Daily.
…Health Minister Gao Qiang blamed the increasing numbers on a lack of knowledge about the disease, especially among women in poor rural areas.
“Women on the whole know less about the disease than men,” Mr Gao reportedly told a recent Beijing conference, adding that fewer than 40% of women in the countryside knew how to prevent Aids.
China estimates that 840,000 of its citizens are infected with HIV, including 80,000 with Aids. But international groups believe the real figure is much higher.
The United Nations’ Aids agency says that up to 10 million Chinese people could be infected by 2010 without more aggressive prevention measures.
The BBC has a comprehensive section on the disease, and our failures and successes in the fight for the cure, on their website.
Last week the only straight man I know in town who is open and honest about having HIV sang at an open mike night in a local bar. Several good ol’ boys didn’t like the looks of him so he mocked them from the stage. The last song of his set he sang with a foot-stompin’, loud, rowdy growl, aimed at the guys down the bar. Shock and awe. I would have loved to see that.
The last song of his set: A cover called “HIV Blues.”