A local Chinese news portal, Nanfang Net, reported that 1,081 people in Guangdong died last year of communicable diseases such as H1N1, hepatitis B, syphilis, rabies and AIDS. Of these diseases, none struck harder than AIDS, which was responsible for the highest number of deaths in the province, followed by rabies, tuberculosis, hepatitis C and syphilis. When combined, these five diseases were responsible for 95.96% of all transmissible deaths in 2013, the report said.

The total number of deaths caused by AIDS was not disclosed in the report; but, according to figures released by the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, the disease was responsible for 76 deaths alone in December 2013.

As of October 31, 2013, there were 680,000 HIV positive people in Guangdong, the Guangzhou Daily reported on January 3, 2014. Among this group, the unemployed (22%) and migrant workers (21%) were the two most vulnerable to the disease.

Increasingly, students are testing HIV positive, said Lin Peng, the head of the Guangdong Disease Control Center’s AIDS research institute. Approximately 63% of all new HIV cases involved men who had sex with men, Lin said. Guangzhou opened an HIV clinic for gay men in 2011.

Another group that has become increasingly prone to the disease is the elderly. Among seniors newly diagnosed with HIV in the last five years, men accounted for 79%, while women accounted for only 21%. Sex-starved seniors, usually widowers or those married to a partner with a low sex drive, often turned to sex workers for unprotected sex, Lin said, explaining the rising numbers.

The province plans to spend an additional RMB 30 million ($5 million) on AIDS prevention this year. There is no word, however, if seniors will be targeted with this AIDS prevention spending.

Photo credit: AFP