Beijing, June 2 (IANS) The number of spouses infected with HIV by their partners is increasing in China, and most of those infected by spouses are females, China Daily reported Saturday.
“The report will help devise better intervention methods to curb rising HIV transmissions within married couples and significantly reduce new infections,” said Liu Kangmai, deputy director of the National Centre for AIDS/STD Prevention and Control (NCAIDS).
Released Friday, the report by NCAIDS, UN Women and UNAIDS was based on a 2011 study conducted in six cities and counties in Yunnan, Henan, Sichuan, Guangxi and Chongqing.
It surveyed more than 770 couples where one party was HIV positive.
According to estimates published by the health ministry, about 15 percent of the estimated 740,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers in China were infected by their spouses.
Of the 48,000 newly detected sufferers in 2011, at least 25 percent of the cases involving heterosexual sex were transmitted by spouses.
The proportion of sufferers infected by spouses quadrupled between 2004 and 2011.
Women currently account for nearly 30 percent of HIV/AIDS sufferers in China, official statistics show.
