Sex Becomes Main Source of AIDS Spread in Drugs-Plagued China Province

Although Yunnan borders Asia's infamous opium-producing "Golden Triangle" region, health authorities in the southwestern Chinese province say sex has overtaken drug use as the leading cause of HIV transmission there. During the first 10 months of 2010, 71 percent of new HIV infections were linked to sexual contact, said Xu Heping, vice director of the provincial health bureau. The proportion of infections transmitted through drug use has declined steadily since 2005, and the level of infection among sex workers has remained largely unchanged. However, one-fifth of new HIV patients contracted the virus from a spouse. "The epidemic's spread among spouses is alarming," Xu said. During the past two decades, AIDS has killed 11,609 people in Yunnan; more than 2,000 AIDS-related deaths were recorded from January through October.

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