HIV infections up sharply among women in China

HONG KONG, June 4 (Reuters) The proportion of females among those infected with HIV/AIDS in China jumped to 27.8 percent in 2006 from 19.4 percent in 2000, the official Xinhua news agency reported today.

The ratio of new infections between males and females has narrowed from 5:1 in the 1990s to 2:1, the agency said, quoting China's Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde.

Wang said the reported number of Chinese HIV/AIDS cases at end-April 2007 was 203,527, up from 183,733 at the end of October 2006. Of the April figure, 52,480 were full-blown AIDS cases.

However, both Beijing and the United Nations estimate the true number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country at about 650,000 and experts say the disease is moving into the general population and spreading even faster.

REUTERS AE ND1544