BEIJING, May 9 (UPI) -- China is seeking protection of the blood supply, a crack down on prostitution and illegal drugs, and a needle exchange program to halt the spread of AIDS.
Xinhua, the official government news agency, reported the State Council released a circular Sunday acknowledging the disease is still spreading rapidly. The government says that AIDS has spread throughout the country since the first case 19 years ago.
The government has released a speech given by Vice-Premier Wu Yi a month ago that said AIDS prevention is at a critical stage because the disease appears likely to spread from high-risk groups to the general population. The government believes that about 840,000 people are infected with the HIV virus and 80,000 have AIDS.
Some experts predict that 10 million Chinese could be HIV-positive by 2010.
"We should enhance management over blood banks, strictly crack down upon illegal blood collection and ban in-hospital infection to curb virus spread through blood transfusions," Wu said.
She also said that the government should encourage the use of condoms and clean needles in addition to cracking down on illegal high-risk behavior.
