Older men more often affected by HIV
- By Fan Junmei
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 23, 2012
![The exhibition, named 'Absolute Distance', aims at eliminating discrimination surrounding AIDS and reflects the living conditions of patients.[ Photo / Xinhua ]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20120823/001372acd0b5119fe4891a.jpg "The exhibition, named 'Absolute Distance', aims at eliminating discrimination surrounding AIDS and reflects the living conditions of patients.[ Photo / Xinhua ]") |
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The exhibition, named "Absolute Distance", aims at eliminating discrimination surrounding AIDS and reflects the living conditions of patients.[ Photo / Xinhua ] |
The number of HIV diagnoses among men has been on the rise. More and more men older than 60, college students, and foreign spouses have attracted the infection, according to a report issued by the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control and Prevention on Wednesday, the Beijing Times reported.
About 780,000 people on the Chinese mainland were living with HIV/AIDS by late 2011, said the report. That same year, the number of new infections stood at 48,000 and some 28,000 AIDS deaths were reported.
Wu Zunyou, director of the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control and Prevention, noted that nearly 76.3 percent of new infections resulted from sexual transmission, of which more than 13 percent through homosexual activity.
It was quite remarkable that in 2005, men older than 60 made up only 2.2 percent of the reported number of HIV infections and a mere 5.4 percent of the reported full-blown AIDS cases. Over the past five years however, these percentages have risen to 8.9 and 11, respectively.
As for the reason behind the abovementioned, some experts claim that the so-called easy life is to blame. Most of the men over 60 were retirees with a lot of time on their hands. Many of these men still had sexual demands, but could not get any satisfaction from their wives. With the country's improving physical and economic conditions, some of the retirees sought to remain sexually active by resorting to unsafe sexual relations with prostitutes. What's more, many of them were very stubborn, believing that even if they got infected, the 10-year-incubation period would be long enough for them to enjoy life.
Of the cases reported in 2011, 1.64 percent consisted of students, up by 0.68 percentage points from 2006, the report showed. Infections among students aged 20 to 24 had also increased from 20.3 percent in 2006 to 49 percent in 2011, with more than 50 percent contracting the virus via unprotected same-sex relations.
The report also showed that infections caused by foreign spouses were mainly found in the provinces of Shandong, Shanxi, and Jilin. Some mother- to-child transmission cases were also direct results from these infections.
Targeted intervention measures have been taken to curb the rising number in HIV/AIDS cases, particularly in counties and rural areas where the public awareness on HIV/AIDS prevention remains relatively poor, Wu stated.
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