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Living in China: Shanghai’s AIDS cases increase fivefold since 2005

The number of known AIDS victims among people holding Shanghai residency has increased more than fivefold since 2005, according to a report released recently […]

The number of known AIDS victims among people holding Shanghai residency has increased more than fivefold since 2005, according to a report released recently.

The Shanghai Health Bureau’s annual findings on communicable diseases also found that AIDS is on the rise among Chinese migrants and expatriates who live in the city.

Earlier studies showed that the chief culprit for the surge in AIDS cases was unprotected sex.

Last year, 38 people died of the disease in Shanghai.

The number of registered AIDS patients among city residents rose from 17 in 2005 to 89 last year, yesterday’s report showed. The incidence rate increased from 0.13 for every 100,000 city residents in 2005 to last year’s 0.65.

Shanghai recorded 43 migrants suffering from AIDS last year compared with 13 in 2005.

Local health officials acknowledge the actual number of AIDS victims in the city could be much higher than the reported cases.

This report did not deal with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, or how people contracted the disease. But in a study released late last year, the Shanghai Health Bureau said unprotected sex was the top transmission channel for HIV/AIDS in the city.

Unprotected sex was the transmission pathway for 77.2 percent of the new cases for local residents and 52.9 percent for non-Shanghainese, the first time that sexual practices surpassed intravenous drug use among non-locals as the chief source of the disease.

Last year’s report showed that the number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the first 10 months of 2008 was 26.5 percent higher than in the same period in 2007. Male victims outnumbered females by 4.5 times.

Song Guofan, a Health Bureau public relations official, said controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS by promoting safe sex is a tough job.

“Though health authorities have carried out sex education for workers serving in entertainment venues like KTVs and small hair salons and promoted condoms in such places, people’s awareness on HIV prevention is still low,” he said.

The Health Bureau also said there were 38,039 cases of infectious disease last year, an incidence rate of 204.7 for every 100,000 people, 2.9 percent higher than in 2007.

The top five diseases last year were syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis and dysentery, comprising 93.4 percent of the total cases, a ranking that was similar to past years.

By Itamar Medeiros

Originally from Brazil, Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Germany, where he works as VP of Design Strategy at SAP, where he leads the design vision for the entire Human Capital Management product line, ensuring cohesive product narratives and establishing best practices.

Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar has helped truly global companies in multiple continents create great user experience through advocating Design and Innovation principles. Itamar has also served as a juror for prestigious design competitions and lectured on design topics at universities worldwide.

During his 7 years in China, he promoted the User Experience Design discipline as User Experience Manager at Autodesk and Local Coordinator of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in Shanghai.

Itamar holds a MA in Design Practice from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), for which he received a Distinction Award for his thesis Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments.

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