China Begins HIV/AIDS Tests for Military Recruits

The People's Liberation Army in China added HIV testing to the physical examination for new recruits in a move that reflects growing government concern about the spread of the virus. The Shanghai Morning Post said HIV testing will begin in three districts in Beijing this year and will widen across China in coming years. Men ages 18 to 20 with at least a junior high school education can apply to China's military. The new screening process for recruits reinforces a growing fear among China's authorities that the country faces an AIDS epidemic.

China recently admitted that tens of thousands of people could have contracted HIV through selling blood to dealers who used unsanitary collection methods, including pooling the blood in a tub and returning it to the donors after extracting the plasma. Some independent experts believe as many as 1 million people could have been infected this way in one central Chinese province, Henan, alone. China acknowledged the gravity of the crisis in August, saying the risk of HIV infection from a blood transfusion in parts of the country was as high as one in 2,500 transfusions, compared to one in 660,000 in the United States. Authorities have implemented a five-year action plan to keep the annual increase in cases of HIV and STDs below 10 percent. Over the past few years, cases have grown 30 percent a year, according to state media reports.

Back to other CDC news for October 25, 2001

Previous Updates