中国HIV新发病例趋势引发担忧

中国HIV新发病例趋势引发担忧

中国年轻男性同性恋者和60岁以上人群艾滋病毒(HIV)感染病例增多，这提出了一个问题，艾滋病是否正在不认为自己有感染风险的人群中悄然传播。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

HIV-positive艾滋病病毒测试呈阳性的

HIVhuman immunodeficiency virus,艾滋病病毒

stigma耻辱；污名

homosexuality同性恋['hɒməʊ,seksjʊ'ælətɪ]

hook-up连接；联播

prostitute妓女；卖淫['prɒstɪtjuːt]

Increase in number of HIV cases in China raises concerns（720 words）

By Lucy Hornby and Archie Zhang in Beijing

A rise in HIV cases among young gay men and people over 60 in China has raised the question of whether the disease is spreading undetected among people who do not consider themselves at risk.

Figures from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention released ahead of World Aids Day on Thursday,show 96,000 new HIV cases in the first nine months of this year,putting China on track to exceed the 115,000 new cases recorded in 2015. The country accounts for about 3 per cent of new HIV cases worldwide,and 2 per cent of the total global HIV-positive population.

Trends among the new cases indicate government efforts to manage HIV may be missing the mark.

“China is one of the countries with the best data but that comes at a price,”said Catherine Sozi,UNAids country director in China. Chinese data reflect documented HIV cases,not the survey projections used in many other countries.“By the time you know every gay man who is HIV positive or every female sex worker the disease has moved elsewhere.”

Of the new cases this year,28 per cent involved men who have sex with men. Last year’s data also showed new cases rising among young people and particularly among gay college students. Chinese commentators view this as a consequence of the stigma attached to homosexuality in China,which might prevent people from being tested for HIV,while non-government organisations worry that a crackdown on NGOs limits their ability to reach the gay community.

But Dr Sozi believes the new cases among gay men reflect not a failure to reach them,but the Chinese gay community’s relative success in persuading people to get tested. Blued,a gay hook-up app with millions of users,has initiated Aids-education campaigns and operates several free testing centres in Beijing. Its campaign could be boosted by the introduction of self-testing kits that allow people to test in privacy,without having to out themselves at a state-run hospital.

The World Health Organisation this week formally recommended the use of self-testing to help reach the estimated 14m people globally who do not know they are HIV positive. In China that includes young gay men who typically have very little sex education when they become sexually active in high school or college.

“Chinese society still has lots of misunderstanding toward homosexuality and Aids so affected people are reluctant to receive help from the government and NGOs,”says Blued founder Geng Le.

In a sign of evolving social norms,Chinese social media cheered when Aids testing kits popped up at a handful of universities in Beijing and Chengdu.“The school is so concerned about gays,”one post said,while others complained that testing kits should also be available in women’s bathrooms.

But outreach to groups known to be at risk could bypass migrant workers or sexually active college students,populations that are unaware Aids is a risk.

Chinese government officials and society believe Aids is limited to gay men,drug users,prostitutes and pockets of people who contracted the disease from blood sales or transfusions.“A whole generation may know about Aids,they are aware,but they don’t think it has anything to do with them,”Dr Sozi said.

She points to the otherwise unusual rise of Aids among older people — a group that could reflect migrant workers who visited prostitutes far from home and the wives they returned to after a life on the road. Figures show 15 per cent of the new cases in 2015 were recorded among people over the age of 60.

Chinese NGOs can apply for grants to do outreach to known at-risk groups,after Chinese premier Li Keqiang personally allocated money from the central government budget to fill a gap when international agencies stopped funding China programmes around 2013.

Provincial governments are also relatively flexible in allocating Aids spending to cities and regions where it is known to be prevalent. Only six provinces account for about 60 per cent of China’s known HIV cases.

While Chinese data track individuals diagnosed with HIV,it does not record the secondary infections that kill most Aids patients. In Africa,that is often tuberculosis,a disease that is common among segments of Chinese society including coal miners that are not categorised as at-risk groups for Aids.