China Reports Sharp Drop In HIV/AIDS

223,501 Currently Infected, Compared With 650,000 In 2005

(AP)  China has 223,501 people infected with HIV, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday, a sharp drop in previously reported figures.

The one-line dispatch from Xinhua did not give any more details.

In 2004, China scaled back the estimated number of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from nearly 1 million people to 840,000, and then further lowered the estimate to 650,000 in 2005.

Experts have said the figures are probably accurate because they are in line with a change in the way data are collected.

HIV gained a foothold in China largely due to unsanitary blood plasma-buying schemes and tainted transfusions in hospitals.

After years of denying that AIDS was a problem, Chinese leaders have shifted gears dramatically in recent years, confronting the disease more openly and promising anonymous testing, free treatment for the poor and a ban on discrimination against people with the virus.

But the topic still remains very sensitive and authorities regularly crack down on activists and patients seeking more support and rights.

Global health officials said earlier this month that the estimated number of people infected with HIV around the world fell from almost 40 million last year to about 33.2 million this year.

Previous estimates were largely inflated and the new numbers are the result of a different methodology, which show that the AIDS pandemic is losing momentum.

The old AIDS numbers were largely based on how many infected pregnant women were at pre-natal clinics, as well as projecting the AIDS rates of certain high-risk groups like drug users to the entire population at risk. Officials said those figures were flawed, and are now incorporating more data like national household surveys.

Last week, David Ho, a well-known AIDS researcher who also runs a public awareness and prevention program in mainland China, said Beijing's previously revised figures likely reflected the change in method of calculation.