Day highlights rising HIV in women
By Sun Xiaohua (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-11 05:29

"Let us empower women and fight against HIV/AIDS." This is the call going out from the Chinese Government today, World Population Day.

A woman takes a look at a picture at an anti-HIV/AIDS exhibition in Shanghai, June 17, 2005. [newsphoto/file]

And given the alarming shift in the ratio of male to female infections in the last decade, the government is hoping to use the day to highlight the disturbing trend.

Annual reports on the number of HIV/AIDS infected patients in China show that the male to female ratio has altered dramatically from 5:1 in the 1990s to the current 2:1. In some areas, the ratio has reached 1:1.

"The number of women infected with HIV/AIDS is climbing," said Wei Jian'an, standing deputy director of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Centre for AIDS Prevention and Treatment.

In China, most women have been infected in two main ways through illegal blood sales and sexual transmission.

"However, most of the recent infections in women have been sexually transmitted. Some of them belong to the high-risk group of prostitutes, while others are just ordinary housewives or career women, infected by their husbands," said Wei.

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