Experts warn of Chinese AIDS crisis

THE head of a global AIDS group warned yesterday the disease is spreading rapidly in China, disputing official figures that suggest the infection rate has remained the same since last year.

However, he praised Beijing’s newly aggressive efforts to fight the illness.

China insists that 840,000 people in the country are HIV-positive and 80,000 had developed AIDS.

Those figures haven’t changed even as a chorus of international experts warned the true number could be far higher.

“The official figures must be wrong,” said Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

After years of denying that AIDS was a problem, China has launched efforts over the past 18 months that include promises of free testing and treatment for the poor and public education campaigns.

The UN has warned that 10 million people could be infected in China by 2010 without better prevention.