Survey Finds China's AIDS Awareness Is Lacking; Medicine Scarce in India, Conference Is Also Told

A survey by China's State Family Planning Commission in 2000 found nearly three-quarters of Chinese neither aware that a virus causes AIDS nor able to describe how they can avoid becoming infected. About one in six Chinese has never heard of the disease, participants at the 14th International AIDS Conference heard Monday.

China surveyed about 7,000 people ages 15 to 50 in seven economically representative counties, finding: 17 percent had never heard of AIDS; among farmers, the figure was 25 percent. About 90 percent knew AIDS could be transmitted person to person, but 85 percent were unaware it could be passed from mother to child; 81 percent did not know it could be acquired by sharing needles; 52 percent did not know it could be transmitted by unsafe blood transfusions; and more than 75 percent were unaware that proper use of condoms could prevent infection. Only 8 percent of people reported using condoms as the form of most recently used contraception (sterilization was the most common method).

Conferees also learned that in India HIV infections have increased tenfold in a decade. About 4 million Indians are infected, up from 400,000 in 1990. The epidemic's true size, however, may be larger, said Salim J. Habayeb, the World Bank's former lead public health specialist for South Asia. Most infections occur in cities among men who sojourn there for work, returning periodically to the village homes where their families reside. Consequently, about 70 percent of infections have rural roots. About 90 percent of India's HIV-infected women are monogamous, married and have had only one sex partner in their life -- their husband.

Meanwhile, almost no one in India is receiving antiretroviral therapy, even though Indian generic drug manufacturers are rapidly becoming the suppliers of choice to the developing world. Indian generics cost more domestically because excise, sales and municipal taxes total 25 percent of the drug's price (the government recently dropped the excise tax). A representative of Indian generic manufacturer Ranbaxy said there is no bulk purchasing of antiretrovirals in India, which would ensure the lowest prices.

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